People are not born atheists. Atheism is a conscious and deliberate choice. People choose not to believe. While some atheists may try to deny it, like it or not, atheism requires faith. It is a belief system just as any other man−made religion. The atheist has faith alone, through his intellect alone, that God does not exist.

When reasoning with an atheist, we must help them see the obvious fallacies inherent in their faith. Here is a great point from Ron Rhodes,

Some atheists categorically state that there is no God, and all atheists, by definition, believe it. And yet, this assertion is logically indefensible. A person would have to be omniscient and omnipresent to be able to say from his own pool of knowledge that there is no God. Only someone who is capable of being in all places at the same time – with a perfect knowledge of all that is in the universe – can make such a statement based on the facts. To put it another way, a person would have to be God in order to say there is no God.
Questions are better than answers when dealing with difficult and deceived people. So, a good question to ask is, “The library of Congress has more than 70 million books most of which are were written by scholars and experts in their field of academics. What percentage of that information do you think you have in your mind? Whatever their is you can follow up with, “Do you think that God may exist outside of your knowledge and experience?” It’s a rhetorical question but wait for his answer. Then you can ask, “If I could show you that it is more rationale to believe in God than in no God would you be willing to look at the evidence? If he says “No” then you can gently point out that it is his will not his intellect that is the problem.

Another common excuse atheists use is the question of evil. “If God is good and all powerful, why is there is so much evil in the world?” Many atheists like to use this but it does not work.

Ron Rhodes…

A good approach to an argument like this is to say something to this effect: “Since you brought up this issue, the burden lies on you to prove that evil actually exists in the world. So let me ask you: by what criteria do you judge some things to be evil and other things not to be evil? By what process do you distinguish evil from good?” The atheist may hedge and say: “I just know that some things are evil. It’s obvious.” Don’t accept such an evasive answer. Insist that he tell you how he knows that some things are evil. He must be forced to face the illogical foundation of his belief system.

After he struggles with this a few moments, point out to him that it is impossible to distinguish evil from good unless one has an infinite reference point which is absolutely good. Otherwise one is like a boat at sea on a cloudy night without a compass (i.e., there would be no way to distinguish north from south without the absolute reference point of the compass needle).

The infinite reference point for distinguishing good from evil can only be found in the person of God, for God alone can exhaust the definition of “absolutely good.” If God does not exist, then there are no moral absolutes by which one has the right to judge something (or someone) as being evil. More specifically, if God does not exist, there is no ultimate basis to judge the crimes of Hitler. Seen in this light, the reality of evil actually requires the existence of God, rather than disproving it.

At this point, the atheist may raise the objection that if God does in fact exist, then why hasn’t he dealt with the problem of evil in the world. You can disarm this objection by pointing out that God is dealing with the problem of evil, but in a progressive way. The false assumption on the part of the atheist is that God’s only choice is to deal with evil all at once in a single act. God, however, is dealing with the problem of evil throughout all human history. One day in the future, Christ will return, strip power away from the wicked, and hold all men and women accountable for the things they did during their time on earth. Justice will ultimately prevail. Those who enter eternity without having trusted in Christ for salvation will understand just how effectively God has dealt with the problem of evil.

If the atheist responds that it shouldn’t take all of human history for an omnipotent God to solve the problem of evil, you might respond by saying: “Ok. Let’s do it your way. Hypothetically speaking, let’s say that at this very moment, God declared that all evil in the world will now simply cease to exist. Every human being on the planet – present company included – would simply vanish into oblivion. Would this solution be preferable to you?”

The atheist may argue that a better solution must surely be available. He may even suggest that God could have created man in such a way that man would never sin, thus avoiding evil altogether. This idea can be countered by pointing out that such a scenario would mean that man is no longer man. He would no longer have the capacity to make choices. This scenario would require that God create robots who act only in programmed ways.

If the atheist persists and says there must be a better solution to the problem of evil, suggest a simple test. Give him about five minutes to formulate a solution to the problem of evil that (1) does not destroy human freedom, or (2) cause God to violate His nature (e.g., His attributes of absolute holiness, justice, and mercy) in some way. After five minutes, ask him what he came up with. Don’t expect much of an answer.

Your goal, of course, is not simply to tear down the atheist’s belief system. After demonstrating some of the logical impossibilities of his claims, share with him some of the logical evidence for redemption in Jesus Christ, and the infinite benefits that it brings. Perhaps through your witness and prayers his faith in atheism will be overturned by a new found faith in Christ.

Questions for the atheist:

Of all the knowledge contained in the 70 million books and articles (much of it written by scholars and experts in their fields) found in the Library of Congress, and of all the knowledge yet to be discovered, what percentage of that knowledge do you think you possess?

• What is the distinction between an atheist and an agnostic?
• What evidence do you have that God does not exist?
• For someone to say that God does not exist, wouldn’t they need to be omniscient?

You might ask them if they even know the number of hairs on their own head or, if they can tell you how a brown cow can eat green grass and turn it into white milk! You have just made a point the atheist may not have considered before.

• In this context, would you agree that there is a lot more that you don’t know then you do know? Would you then be honest enough to admit that God could exist outside of your limited knowledge and experience? If so, doesn’t that make you an agnostic?
• “How did life arise?”
• “Isn’t DNA too complex to form by chance?”
• “Why are there gaps in the fossil record between major kinds?”
• “What are the missing links between apes and man?”Do you think there are serious problems in our world today?
• If there is no such thing as absolute moral truth, would you mind if your spouse was relatively faithful?
• If you had to list the top three problems in our world today, what would they be?
• Would it bother you if your bank statements were relatively accurate?

Is it possible that you object to the idea that God exists, not on intellectual but on moral grounds?

If there is no God, than there is no absolute standard of right and wrong, correct? Then why would you be embarrassed over anything you have done in the past? It is possible that you hate the idea of God, because that would mean you are accountable to Him for the lifestyle you have chosen?

If we could prove the Bible was true and God existed, would you become a Christian?

• Why not?
• Then, you’re not interested in truth?

Then isn’t the real problem a matter of the will and not the intellect?

Questions for the professor:

How and when did life begin?

• How do you know that?
• What existed before that?
• What evidence can you produce for evolution that does not require faith?

If at one time nothing existed, how could anything exist now?

• Where did the chemicals come from for life to begin?
• What are the odds of them coming together by chance to form life from non-living matter?

(F.Y.I. Using the laws of mathematical probability, the odds of the random assembly of genes, both physical and chemical, coming together for spontaneous generation to occur, is not within the realm of possibility.)

• Why not?
• Do you believe in the resurrection of the human body after death?
• What is spontaneous generation?

(F.Y.I. Spontaneous generation is the idea that living cells sprang spontaneously from non-living matter.)

• Since spontaneous generation has never been observed in a laboratory, how can it be called a scientific fact?
• What evidence do you have to support the idea of spontaneous generation?
• Has spontaneous generation ever been observed in a laboratory?
• How is spontaneous generation significantly different from the idea of the resurrection?
• Since it requires faith to believe that, how is that significantly different than religion?

If scientists ever were successful in producing a living cell from non-living matter, wouldn’t that only serve to confirm that intelligence is necessary to produce it?

Can you explain the differences between a hypothesis, a theory, and a scientific law?

(F.Y.I. A hypothesis is an educated guess, based on observation, but has not been proven. A scientific theory summarizes a hypothesis when that hypothesis has been supported with repeated testing. A theory is valid as long as there is no evidence to dispute it. A law generalizes a body of observations. At the time it is made, no exceptions have been found to that law.)

Some scientific laws, or “laws of nature,” include the law of gravity, the laws of motion, and the laws of thermodynamics.

Can you explain the difference between Micro-Evolution and Macro-Evolution?

• Why don’t we see transitional forms of animals (or humans) walking around today?
• What evidence is there that Macro-Evolution has ever occurred?
• Since Macro-Evolution has never been observed, how can it be taught as science?

What did Darwin say the fossil record would certainly reveal if his theory of Macro-Evolution were true?

• How do you account for the fact that there are virtually no fossils showing any intermediate forms?
• Isn’t it true that Darwin said, in essence, that his theory of Macro-Evolution would stand or fall on what the fossil record would show?
• Isn’t it true that the fossil record reveals fully formed kinds in their own right?

Can you explain the laws of thermodynamics?

(F.Y.I. Many atheists believe that matter and energy originated from nothing. The first law of thermodynamics states, “matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed.”)

According to Isaac Asimov, “Another way of stating the second law is: The universe is constantly becoming more disorderly.” According to the second law, energy could not be eternal, because the universe is running down like a clock.

Have the laws of thermodynamics ever been proven wrong?

• How do you explain the clear contradiction between the laws of thermodynamics, which are among the most well established laws of science, and the theory of Macro-Evolution?
• What is energy?

Astronomers tell us that there are 100 billion galaxies in the “known universe,” and billions of stars in each galaxy. According to the laws of thermodynamics, if energy can neither be created nor destroyed, where did all the energy in the universe come from?

Why is it that the vast majority of us die between the ages of 40 and 80, no matter where we live or what we eat?

• If evolution were true, why don’t we see some people who live in relatively unpolluted areas living to be 200 to 300 years old?

What do we know about cells today that Darwin did not?

F.Y.I. Darwin believed that life could have originated by chance, in large part because he mistakenly believed that cells were very simple life forms.

So then, was Darwin correct in his assessment of the simplicity of cells?

• Since Darwin was wrong about cells, which are the basic building blocks of life, how does that affect his theory of Macro-Evolution?

“Logic and mathematics are abstract principles that have been discovered rather than invented. We cannot do science, communicate, or navigate this world without them. They appear to stand outside of nature to describe and measure it. As Albert Einstein said, “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”

“What is the source of math and logic? The existence of this remarkably fine-tuned universe aside, how is it that we have these ‘languages of reality’ to so elegantly describe and interact with it?” ²

How and when did life begin?

• If at one time nothing existed, how could anything exist now?
• How do you know that?
• What existed before that?
• Where did the chemicals come from for life to begin?

What are the odds of them coming together by chance to form life from non-living matter?

(F.Y.I. Using the laws of mathematical probability, the odds of the random assembly of genes, both physical and chemical, coming together for spontaneous generation to occur, is not within the realm of possibility.)

Do you believe in the resurrection of the human body after death?

• Why not?
• What is spontaneous generation?

(F.Y.I. Spontaneous generation is the idea that living cells sprang spontaneously from non-living matter.)

• Since spontaneous generation has never been observed in a laboratory, how can it be called a scientific fact?
• What evidence do you have to support the idea of spontaneous generation?
• How is spontaneous generation significantly different from the idea of the resurrection?
• Has spontaneous generation ever been observed in a laboratory?
• Since it requires faith to believe that, how is that significantly different than religion?

If scientists ever were successful in producing a living cell from non-living matter, wouldn’t that only serve to confirm that intelligence is necessary to produce it?

Can you explain the differences between a hypothesis, a theory, and a scientific law?

(F.Y.I. A hypothesis is an educated guess, based on observation, but has not been proven. A scientific theory summarizes a hypothesis when that hypothesis has been supported with repeated testing. A theory is valid as long as there is no evidence to dispute it. A law generalizes a body of observations. At the time it is made, no exceptions have been found to that law.)

“Logic and mathematics are abstract principles that have been discovered rather than invented. We cannot do science, communicate, or navigate this world without them. They appear to stand outside of nature to describe and measure it. As Albert Einstein said, “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”

“What is the source of math and logic? The existence of this remarkably fine-tuned universe aside, how is it that we have these ‘languages of reality’ to so elegantly describe and interact with it?” ²

What Does The Bible Say About Atheists?

Ps. 14:1 “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.”

Rom 1:18-32 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man — and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

“And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” John 3:19-20.

“Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life’” John 8:12.

Either: 1. No one created something out of nothing, which is the atheists view, or
2. Someone created something out of nothing, which is the theist’s view.”
Option 2 says that someone created something out of nothing. Now that is a miracle. But at least there is a miracle worker – “Someone.” Option 1 is a miracle with no miracle worker. That requires far more faith than option 2 and is clearly irrational.”
What are the Real Motives Behind Atheism?

 Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) was the grandson of Thomas Huxley who was an English biologist. He was known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his bold defense of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Aldous Huxley was a writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Aldous Huxley, like his grandfather before him, was an outspoken atheist. In this priceless quote, he speaks for all atheists (whether they like it or not):

 “I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently assumed it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem of pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system, and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.”

Huxley’s self-imposed spiritual blindness was not intellectual; it was moral. It was not a matter of the mind, but of the will. Here is the same excuse from one of the most evil men who ever lived. This is what the Der Führer reportedly said about the Ten Commandments:

       “The curse of Mt. Sinai must be gotten out of our blood. It is a poison which has spoiled the free instincts of man.”                                                    –Adolph Hitler

At least 1,000 years before Hitler was born, in Psalm 14:1 the Bible revealed the motives behind atheism:

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God; they are corrupt, and have committed abominable deeds.” Atheists are not created they evolve

“A study was done a while back into all the famous atheists of history, Jean Paul Sartre, Camus, Friedrich Nietzche, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Madelyn Murray O’Hair, and every single one of them had something in common. They either lost their father when they were young, their father abandoned their family, or they had a terrible relationship with their father. That is very interesting because often these doubts aren’t really driven by intellectual questions; they are being driven by an emotional issue that really blocks them from wanting to relate to a heavenly father because they feel so abandoned, or cheated, or hurt by their earthly father.” ²

Why is there something rather than nothing? The material world exists. This is not an illusion.

Q: Do you think the material world exists?

Q: Do you think the things that exist have always existed?

Q: What caused things to come into existence?

A: Only two possibilities, either some thing caused it or, no thing caused it. What do you think?

The Problem of Evil:

Q: What would be one of the most morally reprehensible acts you can think of?

Q: When you say this is evil, are you describing the actions themselves, or, are you simply describing your own personal feelings about those actions, or, are you defining what your cultures point of view is?

If they are describing their own personal point of view or, their own cultures point of view, then the objection to the problem of evil just disappeared.
What they are doing that that point is defining subjective evil not objective evil.
The argument of evil as an argument against God’s existence requires evil to be objective. For evil to be objective then good must be objective as well.

As an atheist where do you get objective morality, moral absolutes, moral laws, that have intrinsic value in a world where all that exists is time, space and matter?

You cannot have moral law without a moral law giver. How do you get “good” and “evil” “virtue” or, “vice” from biology?

How do you get “right” and “wrong” from genetic mutations and natural selection?

For evil to be a legitimate argument i.e., a real problem that affects us all, it must be objective evil, that is, independent, or, outside of the mind.

Subjective evil is dependent on the individual mind. It’s your opinion or the opinion of the group.

Evolution can only produce relativistic morality, and if relativism is true than there is no problem with evil because what is evil to you may not be evil to me.

Followed through to its logical conclusion, you would not be able to say that what Hitler did was wrong or, evil. In fact Adolph believed what he was doing was right and good by expediting the evolutionary process because he believed he was removing the weaker races.

Consciousness cannot be accounted for in an atheistic worldview. Some think consciousness is an illusion.

Q: What is an illusion?

Q: Isn’t an illusion (like a mirage) when your consciousness is appeared to falsely?

Q: Can rocks have illusions? Can an unconsciousness person have an illusion?

Q; If consciousness is having an illusion, is the illusion having an illusion, and how would you know you were having one?

Illustration: Student to lecturer, “How do I know I even exist?” Lecturer, “Whom shall I say is asking?”

Picture your mother washing dishes at the kitchen sink. What color was her hair? Was she doing them by hand or loading them in the dishwasher?

How about guilt? Have you ever felt guilty?

The solution is repentance and forgiveness.

That is why Christianity is the most logical and satisfying answer to the ultimate question.

Now, where was your mother just now? Was she in your brain? No. If we cut open your brain would we see your mother in there?

When an atheist speaks on matters of morality from his own worldview, in order for his argument to make sense he must borrow from the Biblical worldview. And that is because he lives in God’s world and doesn’t even know it. And ultimately his argument is a complete contradiction. Take Richard Dawkins as an example. He is the famous British evolutionist atheist from Oxford University. His atheism forces him to say that there is no such thing as an absolute standard of morality. And under very next page he is telling us how immoral God is. He says God is say sadomasochistic, homophobic, anti-woman, a cosmic bully, and an ethnic cleanser etc. Where does he get that from? None of these accusations of God being immoral make sense in an amoral atheist worldview. If there is no morality how can you deny the existence of God on the basis of morality?

Objective reality and morality can only come from a Biblical worldview something he says does not exist. So here we have Richard Dawkins living in a contradiction. Any thinking person can look at the real world and realize that if something is evil than there must be something good to measure it by.

The atheist who refuses to believe in God on the basis that God is immoral yet says there is no morality is a walking contradiction and he does not even realize it not because he can’t see it, it’s because he won’t see it. He can’t see the forest because of the trees.

Plants produce plants. Plants cannot become animals. Animals produce animals, they cannot become men. Humans produce humans. Man cannot become God.

Genesis 1:1

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ”

Nothing is what rocks dream about.

If There Ever Was A Time When Nothing Existed, Then Nothing Would Exist Now; Therefore, Something Must Be Eternal!

I love how the late Dr. Walter Martin used to say it,

If anything now exists, either something is eternal or, no one plus nothing equals everything.

There is one thing that scientists, theologians, and philosophers agree on and it’s this—You have only two choices: Either God is eternal and uncreated, or matter is eternal and uncreated—there is no third option.

Einstein Meets Moses

It was 1910 when Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was first published. His mathematical equation (math being a perfect science) provided a basis for proof that the universe and time itself had a beginning. Einstein’s formula revealed that time, space, and matter (which is energy) had a beginning. Interestingly, his theory (which has never been dis-proven) fit the biblical model perfectly. The very first verse in the Bible says:

“In the beginning (that’s time), God created (that’s energy), the heavens (that’s space), and the earth (that’s matter)!

Since Einstein’s theory (which has been proven accurate to within five decimal points) shows that time, space, and matter had a beginning, then our only other option is staring us in the face: God is eternal and uncreated!

Therefore, as Norman Geisler states it, “Asking the question, where did God come from? is a nonsensical question. It contains the false assumption that God was created or had a beginning and then asks: how is that possible? It’s like asking, where did the bachelor get his wife? Or, what does blue sound like? Bachelors by definition do not have wives, and sight is not in the category of sound.”

In the same sense, God is not in the category of created things. The question itself is fatally flawed. Asking the wrong question does not generally produce the right answer. A better question to begin with is,

“Why is there something rather than nothing?”

As for the law of cause and effect, that only applies to things that have a beginning or were created.

Using Their Words Against Them

Prominent evolutionist George Wald, biochemist and Nobel Laureate from Harvard University said,

“When it comes to the origin of life, we have only two possibilities as to how life arose. One is spontaneous generation arising to evolution; the other is a supernatural creative act of God. There is no third possibility…Spontaneous generation was scientifically disproved one hundred years ago by Louis Pasteur, Spellanzani, Reddy and others. That leads us scientifically to only one possible conclusion—that life arose as a supernatural creative act of God…I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore, I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation arising to evolution.”

How Impossible Is It?

“Fred Hoyle and his colleague Chandra Wickramasinghe (both world-famous physicists), calculated the odds that all the functional proteins necessary for life to originate by chance. They came up with a figure of one chance in 10 40,000 ).”2 It is believed that the number of atoms in the known universe is 10 80. That is 10 with 80 zeros after it!

According to the mathematical science of probability, if a number has more than 50 zeros after it, the odds of that happening by chance is virtually impossible. Hoyle has adopted the theory that life must have come from other planets. That is circular reasoning.

Allow Me To Introduce: Ron Rhodes

“Since the universe reveals time, space and matter, the first cause must be outside of time, space and matter. We can thus conclude that the first cause is timeless and eternal. We can also conclude that the first cause is immaterial since it or He transcends space.”

“To have created the universe, in all of its incredible vastness, out of nothing, the First Cause must be omnipotent. To have created the universe with such precision, and intricate design, perfect for the existence of human life on earth, the First Cause must be omniscient.”

“To have made an unending series of design choices requires that the First Cause be personal, for an inanimate, impersonal thing cannot make choices. God’s personality is also evidenced in the fact that He created personal human beings. And, each of us knows instinctively, that it is morally wrong to murder, to steal, to lie, and to have another man’s wife. The universal moral law is written on every man’s heart. This is also known as conscience. Absolute moral truth is absolute proof of a universal moral law giver.”

All these characteristics are consistent with what the Bible reveals about God. It takes far more faith to believe that no one plus nothing, equals everything than it does to believe in an intelligent designer!

Is Morality Relative?

Just as mathematics is a perfect science, so is the moral law of God. Moral truth is as timeless and true for everyone of every age as the mathematical equation 2 + 2 = 4.

Incredibly, the moral relativist says, “It’s wrong for you to impose your morals on me.” That statement is in itself a perfect contradiction. Aren’t they imposing their morals on us by saying that? How about when you hear them say, “There is no such thing as right or wrong.” We must ask, “Is that statement right or wrong?”

Another common claim of the moral relativist goes like this, “All truth is a matter of one’s own opinion, just like I prefer vanilla over chocolate.” That is fine for food, but when you try to use that same rationale with morality, it completely breaks down. You can’t say, “That was a wonderful evening,” and in the same breath, speaking of Hitler’s murdering six million innocent people, say, “That was a wonderful holocaust. Let’s do it again soon!”

The relativist will argue, “Everybody can believe whatever they want!” Why then are they trying to get us to believe what they want?

The relativist claims that everyone should be free to do whatever he wants. Ask that same person how he feels if someone cuts in line in front of him, or, if he comes home to find his house has been burglarized and his family murdered! Not one of these people would maintain such a ridiculous position and say, “Oh well, who am I to impose my personal opinions on this man. His views on robbery, rape, and murder are just as valid as mine.”

The relativist claims, “No one knows what truth is.” Then he asks you to believe what he just said is true! That is utter nonsense. How can you make an argument against absolute truth unless your argument is absolutely true?

“Once I was a tadpole beginning to begin. Then I was a frog with my tail tucked in. Then I was a monkey in a banana tree. Now I’m a professor with a PhD.” -W.A. Criswell

Consider the philosophy teachers who read books that say life has no meaning. Are these books meaningful? How about the professors who teach their students “Truth is whatever is true for you; there are no absolute standards of right and wrong.” Then they turn around and grade your papers (some of these nutty professors have so many degrees they don’t have any temperature left).

Would these same professors mind if their wives were “relatively” faithful? How about if their bank statements were “relatively” accurate?

If there is no God, then there is no moral law. If there is no God, then life is meaningless, and the world is an inexplicable riddle. If God created man then life has meaning and the history of the human race is satisfactorily explained.

If you would like to learn more about answering the difficult questions people ask about God, check out our book, Where Did God Come From? by clicking on the “store” tab.

1. Logical consistency—the claims of a belief system must logically cohere to each other and not contradict in any way. As an example, the end goal of Buddhism is to rid oneself of all desires. Yet, one must have a desire to rid oneself of all desires, which is a contradictory and illogical principle.
2. Empirical adequacy—is there evidence to support the belief system (whether the evidence is rational, externally evidential, etc.)? Naturally, it is only right to want proof for important claims being made so the assertions can be verified. For example, Mormons teach that Jesus visited North America. Yet there is absolutely no proof, archaeological or otherwise, to support such a claim.
3. Existential relevancy—the belief system should address the big questions of life described below and the teachings should be accurately reflected in the world in which we live. Christianity, for example, provides good answers for the large questions of life, but is sometimes questioned because of its claim of an all-good and powerful God who exists alongside a world filled with very real evil. Critics charge that such a thing violates the criteria of existential relevancy, although many good answers have been given to address the issue.

The above framework, when applied to the topic of religion, will help lead one to a right view of God and will answer the four big questions of life:

1. Origin – where did we come from?
2. Ethics – how should we live?
3. Meaning – what is the purpose for life?
4. Destiny – where is mankind heading?

But how does one go about applying this framework in the pursuit of God? A step-by-step question/answer approach is one of the best tactics to employ. Narrowing the list of possible questions down produces the following:

1. Does absolute truth exist?
2. Do reason and religion mix?
3. Does God exist?
4. Can God be known?
5. Is Jesus God?
6. Does God care about me?

First we need to know if absolute truth exists. If it does not, then we really cannot be sure of anything (spiritual or not), and we end up either an agnostic, unsure if we can really know anything, or a pluralist, accepting every position because we are not sure which, if any, is right.

Absolute truth is defined as that which matches reality, that which corresponds to its object, telling it like it is. Some say there is no such thing as absolute truth, but taking such a position becomes self-defeating. For example, the relativist says, “All truth is relative,” yet one must ask: is that statement absolutely true? If so, then absolute truth exists; if not, then why consider it? Postmodernism affirms no truth, yet it affirms at least one absolute truth: postmodernism is true. In the end, absolute truth becomes undeniable.

Further, absolute truth is naturally narrow and excludes its opposite. Two plus two equals four, with no other answer being possible. This point becomes critical as different belief systems and worldviews are compared. If one belief system has components that are proven true, then any competing belief system with contrary claims must be false. Also, we must keep in mind that absolute truth is not impacted by sincerity and desire. No matter how sincerely someone embraces a lie, it is still a lie. And no desire in the world can make something true that is false.

The answer of question one is that absolute truth exists. This being the case, agnosticism, postmodernism, relativism, and skepticism are all false positions.

This leads us to the next question of whether reason/logic can be used in matters of religion. Some say this is not possible, but—why not? The truth is, logic is vital when examining spiritual claims because it helps us understand why some claims should be excluded and others embraced. Logic is absolutely critical in dismantling pluralism (which says that all truth claims, even those that oppose each other, are equal and valid).

For example, Islam and Judaism claim that Jesus is not God, whereas Christianity claims He is. One of the core laws of logic is the law of non-contradiction, which says something cannot be both “A” and “non-A” at the same time and in the same sense. Applying this law to the claims Judaism, Islam, and Christianity means that one is right and the other two are wrong. Jesus cannot be both God and not God. Used properly, logic is a potent weapon against pluralism because it clearly demonstrates that contrary truth claims cannot both be true. This understanding topples the whole “true for you but not for me” mindset.

Logic also dispels the whole “all roads lead to the top of the mountain” analogy that pluralists use. Logic shows that each belief system has its own set of signs that point to radically different locations in the end. Logic shows that the proper illustration of a search for spiritual truth is more like a maze—one path makes it through to truth, while all others arrive at dead ends. All faiths may have some surface similarities, but they differ in major ways in their core doctrines.

The conclusion is that you can use reason and logic in matters of religion. That being the case, pluralism (the belief that all truth claims are equally true and valid) is ruled out because it is illogical and contradictory to believe that diametrically opposing truth claims can both be right.

Next comes the big question: does God exist? Atheists and naturalists (who do not accept anything beyond this physical world and universe) say “no.” While volumes have been written and debates have raged throughout history on this question, it is actually not difficult to answer. To give it proper attention, you must first ask this question: Why do we have something rather than nothing at all? In other words, how did you and everything around you get here? The argument for God can be presented very simply:

Something exists.
You do not get something from nothing.
Therefore, a necessary and eternal Being exists.

You cannot deny you exist because you have to exist in order to deny your own existence (which is self-defeating), so the first premise above is true. No one has ever demonstrated that something can come from nothing unless they redefine what ‘nothing’ is, so the second premise rings true. Therefore, the conclusion naturally follows—an eternal Being is responsible for everything that exists.

This is a position no thinking atheist denies; they just claim that the universe is that eternal being. However, the problem with that stance is that all scientific evidence points to the fact that the universe had a beginning (the ‘big bang’). And everything that has a beginning must have a cause; therefore, the universe had a cause and is not eternal. Because the only two sources of eternality are an eternal universe (denied by all current empirical evidence) or an eternal Creator, the only logical conclusion is that God exists. Answering the question of God’s existence in the affirmative rules out atheism as a valid belief system.

Now, this conclusion says nothing about what kind of God exists, but amazingly enough, it does do one sweeping thing—it rules out all pantheistic religions. All pantheistic worldviews say that the universe is God and is eternal. And this assertion is false. So, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and all other pantheistic religions are ruled out as valid belief systems.

Further, we learn some interesting things about this God who created the universe. He is:

• Supernatural in nature (as He exists outside of His creation)
• Incredibly powerful (to have created all that is known)
• Eternal (self-existent, as He exists outside of time and space)
• Omnipresent (He created space and is not limited by it)
• Timeless and changeless (He created time)
• Immaterial (because He transcends space)
• Personal (the impersonal can’t create personality)
• Necessary (as everything else depends on Him)
• Infinite and singular (as you cannot have two infinites)
• Diverse yet has unity (as all multiplicity implies a prior singularity)
• Intelligent (supremely, to create everything)
• Purposeful (as He deliberately created everything)
• Moral (no moral law can exist without a lawgiver)
• Caring (or no moral laws would have been given)

This Being exhibits characteristics very similar to the God of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, which interestingly enough, are the only core faiths left standing after atheism and pantheism have been eliminated. Note also that one of the big questions in life (origins) is now answered: we know where we came from.

This leads to the next question: can we know God? At this point, the need for religion is replaced by something more important—the need for revelation. If mankind is to know this God well, it is up to God to reveal Himself to His creation. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all claim to have a book that is God’s revelation to man, but the question is which (if any) is actually true? Pushing aside minor differences, the two core areas of dispute are 1) the New Testament of the Bible 2) the person of Jesus Christ. Islam and Judaism both claim the New Testament of the Bible is untrue in what it claims, and both deny that Jesus is God incarnate, while Christianity affirms both to be true.

There is no faith on the planet that can match the mountains of evidence that exist for Christianity. From the voluminous number of ancient manuscripts, to the very early dating of the documents written during the lifetime of the eyewitnesses (some only 15 years after Christ’s death), to the multiplicity of the accounts (nine authors in 27 books of the New Testament), to the archaeological evidence—none of which has ever contradicted a single claim the New Testament makes—to the fact that the apostles went to their deaths claiming they had seen Jesus in action and that He had come back from the dead, Christianity sets the bar in terms of providing the proof to back up its claims. The New Testament’s historical authenticity—that it conveys a truthful account of the actual events as they occurred—is the only right conclusion to reach once all the evidence has been examined.

When it comes to Jesus, one finds a very curious thing about Him—He claimed to be God in the flesh. Jesus own words (e.g., “Before Abraham was born I AM”), His actions (e.g., forgiving sins, accepting worship), His sinless and miraculous life (which He used to prove His truth claims over opposing claims), and His resurrection all support His claims to be God. The New Testament writers affirm this fact over and over again in their writings.

Now, if Jesus is God, then what He says must be true. And if Jesus said that the Bible is inerrant and true in everything it says (which He did), this must mean that the Bible is true in what it proclaims. As we have already learned, two competing truth claims cannot both be right. So anything in the Islamic Koran or writings of Judaism that contradict the Bible cannot be true. In fact, both Islam and Judaism fail since they both say that Jesus is not God incarnate, while the evidence says otherwise. And because we can indeed know God (because He has revealed Himself in His written Word and in Christ), all forms of agnosticism are refuted. Lastly, another big question of life is answered—that of ethics—as the Bible contains clear instructions on how mankind ought to live.

This same Bible proclaims that God cares deeply for mankind and wishes all to know Him intimately. In fact, He cares so much that He became a man to show His creation exactly what He is like. There are many men who have sought to be God, but only one God who sought to be man so He could save those He deeply loves from an eternity separated from Him. This fact demonstrates the existential relevancy of Christianity and also answers that last two big questions of life—meaning and destiny. Each person has been designed by God for a purpose, and each has a destiny that awaits him—one of eternal life with God or eternal separation from Him. This deduction (and the point of God becoming a man in Christ) also refutes Deism, which says God is not interested in the affairs of mankind.

In the end, we see that ultimate truth about God can be found and the worldview maze successfully navigated by testing various truth claims and systematically pushing aside falsehoods so that only the truth remains. Using the tests of logical consistency, empirical adequacy, and existential relevancy, coupled with asking the right questions, yields truthful and reasonable conclusions about religion and God. Everyone should agree that the only reason to believe something is that it is true—nothing more. Sadly, true belief is a matter of the will, and no matter how much logical evidence is presented, some will still choose to deny the God who is there and miss the one true path to harmony with Him.

The credit for this article goes to: Got Questions.org

Read more:https://www.gotquestions.org/correct-religion.html#ixzz3La083WQm

The Holy Bible

The “Word” refers to the Living Word—Jesus Christ—and the written Word—the Bible.

Upon close examination, the serious student will discover that the Word of God stands alone.

There is no possible term of comparison between the Bible and Jesus Christ and any other so-called “holy book” or religious leader in history.

Keep reading and you’ll see why.

God made sure no one could ever claim the Bible was a man-made conspiracy. It was written over the course of 1,500 years, on three continents—Europe, Asia, and Africa.

• It was written in three languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
• It was produced by 40 different writers, and yet it is one complete comprehensive story with a beginning, middle, and end.
• Its main theme is the redemption of man and its main character is Jesus Christ.
• It speaks on hundreds of controversial topics in perfect harmony. Completed 1,900 years ago, the Bible tells us: How the world began, how it will end, it reveals the purpose of man, and the future of mankind.

Ultimately, the Bible is the story of redemption—How God can forgive mans sin without compromising His Justice—It’s the story of Jesus Christ!

Bible Prophecy Is Empirical Proof The Scriptures Are Divinely Inspired

The reason is obvious: No human being can even come close to predicting the future with 100 percent accuracy. Only a person with omniscience can do that!

One example of Bible prophecy concerns the nation of Israel.

The Word of God plainly states that the nation of Israel plays a major role in the end-time events of human history, thousands of years in advance. Using Israel as an object lesson, the main theme of the Bible from beginning to end is how God can forgive man’s sin without compromising His justice. Simply stated, the Bible is the story of Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and Man, the Redeemer of all who trust in Him. The story begins and ends in the Holy Land of Israel.

Written thousands of years ago, one recurring theme throughout the Bible is the birth, the death, and the rebirth of the nation of Israel. In Ezekiel 36-39 (written 2,500 years ago) God revealed that the Jews would be exiled from Israel (because of her sin), the land would be desolate for a long time, and in the latter days He would bring them back as a nation. History shows that this is precisely what happened!

In A.D. 70, the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem, and the surviving Jews were exiled. Miraculously, they remained a distinct race even though they had no homeland for nearly 1,900 years! After World War II, they began to trickle back into Israel. Then, in May, 1948, they established a second Jewish state, precisely as the Bible predicted!

In Zechariah 14:2, the Bible clearly states that the last war of the world will be fought over Jerusalem (more proof that the Bible is true).

Dr. Wilbur Smith, who assembled a personal library of 29,000 volumes, concludes,

“Whatever one may think of the authority of and the message presented in the book we call the Bible, there is world-wide agreement that in more ways than one it is the most remarkable volume that has ever been produced in these some 5,000 years of writing on the part of the human race. “It is the only volume ever produced by man, or a group of men, in which is to be found a large body of prophecies relating to individual nations, to Israel, to all the peoples of the earth, to certain cities, and to the coming of one who was to be the Messiah. The ancient world had many different devices for determining the future, known as divination, but not in the entire gamut of Greek and Latin literature, even though they use the words prophet and prophecy, can we find any real specific prophecy of a great historic event to come in the distant future, nor any prophecy of a Savior to arise in the human race.” 2

The Scriptures also contain metaphysical information that transcend the human intellect. From astronomy, to physics, to biology, geology, to anthropology, to economy, to prophecy and much more, the unbiased student will be forced to the inescapable conclusion that the Bible is a direct revelation from a vastly superior intelligence. The following are just a few examples of God’s omniscience:

How Miraculous Is Bible Prophecy?

Imagine that I predicted 1,000 years in advance the exact city in which the President of the United States would be born, his exact birth date, his nationality, what family he would come from, what kind of car he would drive, where he would go to school, what his name would be, what his father’s and mother’s names would be, how old he would be when he died, when and how he would die, plus dozens of his most significant accomplishments—all in specific detail—and I was 100 per cent accurate on every count. Would that be a miracle? That is exactly what the Bible did in reference to Jesus.

According to the mathematical science of probability, if a number has more than 50 zeros after it, the odds of that happening by chance is virtually impossible. To put this in perspective, the number of atoms in the known universe is believed to be 10 80. That is 1 with 80 zeros after it. According to Ph.D. astrophysicists and other qualified American science professors, the odds of fulfilling the Bible’s prophecies by chance alone are one out of a number expressed as 1 with 2,000 zeros after it!

Physics in the Bible?

The very first verse in the Bible perfectly parallels one of the greatest and most advanced physics equations ever discovered. Keep in mind that the Scriptures were written thousands of years before scientific research even began.

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity provided a basis for proof that time, space and matter (which is energy) were not only the foundational facts of science, but each had a beginning (as opposed to being eternal). The implications of this mathematical equation (math being a perfect science) were enormous; it left Einstein (and all the rest of us) staring in the face of God.

Incredibly, the Bible begins with these words,

“In the beginning (that’s time) God created (that’s energy) the heavens (that’s space) and the earth (that’s matter). And that’s just the first verse! Just 5 chapters later we come to…

Noah’s Ark

In Genesis chapter 6 we have the record of God telling Noah to build the ark. As for the pseudo scientists who mock those who take this story literally, there are a couple of “minor details” they’ll need to explain before we decide who has the last laugh (there is nothing funny about an unbeliever, it’s only a phrase to make a point).

The author of the book of Genesis gave Noah the exact specifications necessary to build the ark, and to build it right. Here is what is recorded in Genesis 6:14-16:

“Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.”

A cubit is the length of a man’s arm from his elbow to the tip of his middle finger (about a foot and a half). Based on the Biblical account, we know (within a matter of inches) how long, how wide and how high Noah’s Ark was! That means we can test it.

Interestingly, it was not until the 20th century that scientists built a scaled down model of Noah’s ark using the exact ratios of height, width, and length found in the Genesis account. They wanted to test the sea worthiness of its design. Estimating the weight for the proper ballast, they put their experiment to the test in a large tank filled with water. Then they produced waves, gradually increasing their intensity.

What they discovered was astounding. It wouldn’t sink! They concluded that a ship built to those specifications would have been one of the most sea worthy vessels ever constructed. What are the odds of Noah guessing how to build a ship of this magnitude and getting it right? About the same odds you would have of being struck by lightning twice in the same spot, and winning the lottery, only to discover that the plane you’re on is going down because it was struck my a metor! How did Noah know this? He didn’t. God did.

Here is another inexplicable fact (humanly speaking) about Noah’s flood. Scientists have discovered marine fossils on mountain peaks all over the world, including Mt. Everest, the highest point on earth. How did the fossils of sea creatures ascend 29,000 feet above sea level? Do our atheistic “scientists” have an explanation for this? Were they flying fish? Or, maybe they came from another planet! The Bible provides the answer in Genesis 7:17-20:

“Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.”

Go to Answers in Genesis on the World Wide Web, to learn everything you ever wanted to know about Noah’s flood.

History And The Bible

Another unique thing about the Bible is the fact that God’s plan of redemption (the whole point of the Book) is interwoven in and through actual historical events. The Bible’s historical accuracy has been verified not only by secular historians, but by more than 100 years of painstaking research by archeologist’s. Most of the great Bible stories (names, dates, times, places and events) have been discovered by this scientific method and proven to be accurate time and again.

The Bible does not start out, “Once upon a time.” The origin of man begins in a real geographical location called the Garden of Eden. Its exact location is revealed in Genesis chapter 2 where we read,

“Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers.”

In Genesis 2:11-14, the Word of God identifies the names and the location of these rivers!

“The name of the first is Pishon … the name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole. And the name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”

Here we are today, approximately 6,000 years later and two of those rivers still exist. The Tigris and the Euphrates rivers meet in a place called “Al Qurnah”, which is located in southeastern Iraq.

Herodotus, the Greek historian, is known as the “father of history” and was a contemporary of Malachi, the writer of the last Old Testament book. But the Bible records events going as far back as Abraham (2,000 years before Christ), and for that matter, it takes us all the way back to the creation of the world! There is no other book that can make such a claim.

Reading the Bible, we learn of the Mesopotamian world through the lives of the patriarchs. We see God’s plan of redemption played out in the epic drama of the Hebrew people being delivered from slavery in Egypt. What follows is the fascinating account of the children of God marching through the Red Sea, the revelation of God giving the Ten Commandments on Mt Sinai and the beginning of the nation of Israel.

We learn the rich history of Israel’s rise to power under Kings Saul, David and Solomon. We also learn of Israel’s downfall because of her sin. The Bible does not cover up the dark side of its greatest characters. The Word of God tells it like it is. Three of its greatest heroes, Moses, King David and the Apostle Paul were all murderers.

Through the life of Daniel we read the history of the Babylonian Empire and King Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel was born during the reign of King Josiah of Judah, who was followed by his son Jehoiakim, who was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel’s prophecies concerning the future kingdoms that would rule the world were so precise, secular historians and skeptics insist they had to be written after the fact.

Through the eyes of Queen Esther we learn of the Persian Empire under King Ahasuerus and how God used Esther to save her people from annihilation.

It is no coincidence that the hero of the story (Jesus Christ) does not appear until the Roman Empire came to power.

The phrase, “All roads lead to Rome,” was coined because Rome built roads that made travel much easier. Thus, another phrase was coined. With travel being vastly improved, so were communications. As a result, the Disciples of Christ were credited with “turning the world upside down” with the Gospel!

The New Testament begins in Bethlehem of Judea, in the time of King Herod. Hundreds of names, dates, times, places and events are recorded, leaving an obvious trail for us to follow.

Why did God choose to write the Bible this way? God has revealed Himself and His plan of redemption through history (the past) and through prophecy (the future) so that the nations may know that He is the Lord. In Isaiah 46:9-10 God says,

“Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; {I am} God, and there is no one like me, Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.’”

The Incredible Prophecy Of The Ishmaelites

In Genesis 16:11-12 we read,

“And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.”

WAS THE BIBLE RIGHT ABOUT THE ISHMAELITES?

Just look at the Middle East. What do you see? As of this writing, most of the Middle East (and other nations in the region) is completely up-for-grabs. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, the Arab countries that surround Israel are engulfed in civil war (which is anything but civil).

Sunnis kill Shiites; Shiites kill Sunnis, moderates fighting with radicals, Iraqis fighting with Iranians, and governments using poison gas to kill their own civilians. The Saudis are afraid of the Iranians, and the list goes on and on (and on). As of this writing (September 2013), it is reported that more than 100,000 are dead in Syria alone!

DO YOU KNOW WHO HOLDS THE RECORD FOR THE LARGEST NUMBER OF MURDERS IN HISTORY?

Adolph Hitler murdered 11 million in 12 years. Joseph Stalin is responsible for 20 million in 30 years. Mao Tse-tung is responsible for 60 million Chinese in just 41 years!

But, the Ishmaelites, beginning with Mohammed in the 7th century up until now (the killing has been ongoing for 14 centuries and the numbers are now growing exponentially, especially in Africa), have murdered more than 270 million people. No one else even comes close!

This is well documented at, https://markhumphrys.com/islam.killings.html

More than 2,000 years ago, in John 16:2-4, the Lord Jesus prophesied,

“…the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.”

Astronomy And The Bible

• The ancient Egyptians believed that the earth was suspended on five pillars.
• The Greeks believed Atlas held the earth on his shoulders.
• The Hindus taught that the earth was held up by an elephant, the elephant was on a tortoise, the tortoise was on a serpent, and the serpent was swimming in a cosmic sea. They don’t tell us what held up the cosmic sea!

And, it was just a few hundred years ago that most people thought the earth was flat! In fact, The Flat Earth Society still does!

• In Sura 18:86, The Koran says, “the sun sets in a puddle of mud!”
  Yet in chapter 26 of Job, the Bible says, “God hangs the earth upon nothing.” And in 750 B.C., the 40th chapter of Isaiah told us that “God sits upon the circle of the earth.” But, man didn’t know that until Columbus sailed around the world without falling off!

Before Galileo came along, star gazers believed there were about 2,500 stars. And, just about 2,500 years before Galileo, the prophet Jeremiah said, “The host of heaven cannot be numbered” (Jeremiah 33:22). How could Jeremiah possibly have known that? He didn’t. God did.

The Two Divisions Offer More Proof

Just to make sure no one could ever claim the Bible was a man-made conspiracy, there are 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Through fulfilled prophecy, both testaments point back and forth to the other as positive proof of their divine authenticity and perfect unity.

This is fascinating because without the New Testament, the Old Testament would be incomplete, and without the Old Testament, the New Testament would be utterly incomprehensible! Each is a guide to properly understanding the other.

The Old Testament is the foundation upon which the New Testament is built. And the New Testament constantly refers back to the Old to establish its credibility. This is intended to reveal its super-natural origin through prophecy.

The very first verse in the New Testament forces you to this inescapable conclusion. Matthew 1:1 shows us two things. First, that God always keeps His promises, and secondly, that the Bible is one book!

“This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.”

This verse says in effect, “If you are starting here, you have to go back to Genesis man!” Who would pick up any other book and start reading right in the middle? Yet, people do that with the Bible, and wonder why they have trouble understanding it.

“Starting in Matthew is like walking into a movie half-way through. It’s like thinking you are telling a good joke when all you can remember is the punch line.”

Without knowing the covenant promises that God made with Abraham and David, Matthew 1:1 would be utterly boring. Yet to those who understand it in the context of the promises made by God in the Old Testament, this verse explodes with excitement!

Matthew 1:1 announces to the world that the promise of a Savior going all the way back to the book of Genesis begins now!

This same principle holds true for more than 1,200 verses in the New Testament.

• What is the significance of Christ dying on Passover and being raised on First Fruits were it not for the book of Exodus?
• What sense would John have made when he said of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?”
  Or Jesus when He said, “This is the new covenant in My blood,” were it not for the doctrine of the blood atonement in Leviticus?
• The sacrificial system of ancient Judaism provided the world with 1,500 years of literal, historical, and theological context so when Jesus came along and offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the world this would all make sense.

Most of us think of Matthew as the first book of the New Testament, and it is. In our modern English translations, Matthew is also the 40th book of the 66 that make up the Bible. The number 40 is significant since throughout scripture, it represents the number of completion.

Furthermore, the Old Testament contains truths that are essential for a proper worldview that are found in no other source. For examples:

• Only in the book of Genesis do we discover the origin of the universe
• The origin of man
• Man’s fall into sin
• The doctrine of marriage and the family
• The establishment of the nations and languages
• The prophetic significance of Israel!
• Only in the Old Testament are we told of the rebellion in Heaven that turned Lucifer into Satan, and thus the origin of evil, and the promise of a Redeemer.

“The Old Testament worldview is clearly distinct from other worldviews, such as polytheism, pantheism, gnosticism, deism, atheism, and naturalism. The New Testament does not provide another worldview but simply assumes the one taught in the Old Testament.”

The Bible Compared To The Koran

The main theme of the Bible is God’s redeeming love through Jesus Christ. By contrast, the main theme (by actual word-count) of the Koran is the contrast of believers vs. non-believers and former believers.

Almost every page either extols the virtue of being a Muslim or condemns non-believers as infidels, destined for eternal punishment.

If you were to remove every verse exhorting believers and every verse that threatens unbelievers, there would be little left in the Koran.

My point is not to embarrass another man’s religion but to put the Bible in context.

The Bible is the complete and comprehensive book on life. While the main theme is God’s redeeming love through Jesus Christ, among its more than 31,000 verses you can find the answer to virtually every question you could ever ask about life.

Some of the thousands of topics covered in the Bible include:

Is there a God?
Who am I, why am I here, where did I come from, where am I going?
How was the universe created?
How to find God
How to love and be loved
God’s law
God’s grace
Why all men die
Is there life after death?
Do heaven and hell really exists, how does one get there?
If God is good why is there evil?
What is sin?
How to be forgiven
How to forgive
How to be a good husband
How to be a good wife
How to have a healthy marriage
How to train (and not train) children
How to handle money
How to invest money
How to have lasting and fulfilling relationships
How to choose your friends
How to control your emotions and your thought life
The value of humility
The greatest moral code known to man—the Ten Commandments
God’s view on marriage and divorce
What our responsibility is to our fellow-man
What God’s will is

There are verses that tell you what to do when you experience:

Fear
Anxiety
loneliness
When you are bereaved
Feel defeated
Depressed
Discouraged
Doubting
Facing a crisis
When friends fail you
When you are in need of protection
Needing guidance
How to have perfect peace
What constitutes love
How to get joy
How to develop an eternal perspective
How to overcome temptation
How to kick the sin habit, etc.
The Bible teaches about adultery, homosexuality, how to overcome anger, lust, greed, pride, hatred, bitterness, jealousy, resentment, forgiveness, how to pray, how not to pray, what constitutes holiness, happiness, humility, honor etc.

According to the Naves Topical Bible, there are more than 20,000 sub topics addressed in the Bible.

In other words, you can discover what God says about each of those topics. The point is, God wrote a book to teach man how to live successfully, and how to have eternal life in heaven. The Bible is the owners’ manual on life. Isn’t that what you would expect from a book if God wrote it?

Jesus Christ is the Most Famous Person in History

The life of Christ represents the defining moment in the history of mankind. Jesus had such a profound impact on the world by what He said and by what He did that the world marks time by His death and resurrection!

We live in the 21st century “A.D”. That is Latin for Anno Domini which means “In the year of the Lord”. The reason the world marks time by the birth of Jesus is because three days after He was crucified, He raised Himself from the dead! No one ever did that before or since.

I’m not so amazed that Jesus raised Himself from the dead. I’m more amazed that He could have died in the first place! Death is the result of sin. That is why all men die, no matter how they die. But Jesus was sinless. How could He have died? The answer is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21,

“He made Him who knew no sin {to be} sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Christ died all right—He took on the sins of the whole world, past, present and future! That is how God can legally forgive us without compromising His justice. Someone else paid the price for you!

John 1:1 and Colossians 1:17 state that Jesus was God manifested in human flesh, eternal and not created.

According to the New Testament, repentance and believing in the deity of Jesus is what constitutes salvation. In John 8:26 Jesus said,

“… you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am (He) you shall die in your sins.”

No man ever spoke like Jesus did, before or since.

Anyone can say that he or she is a prophet, anyone can say, “I am God” but proving it is much more difficult. There are seven “I am” sayings of Jesus in the New Testament. Each is a clear reference to Exodus 3:14 when God revealed His name to Moses: “I am, that I am, tell them I am.” So, when Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” the Pharisees knew exactly what He meant, and they wanted to stone Him for claiming to be God (John 8:58, 59; 10:30,3 1)!

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world”. But, He did not just say, “I am the light of the world,” He said, “I am the light of the world” and He gave sight to a man born blind!

He said, “I am the bread of life.” But He did not just say, “I am the bread of life,” He said, “I am the bread of life”, and He fed 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish!

He did not just say, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He said, “I am the resurrection and the life” and He raised Lazarus (and many others) from the dead!

Each of the “I Am” sayings was accompanied by a miracle, which in turn revealed His deity. The one miracle He performed more than any other was that of giving sight to the blind. In Exodus 4:11, God is speaking to Moses,

“And the LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes {him} dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?’”

The “I Am” sayings show that Jesus not only claimed to be God, but offered empirical proof of being the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Redeemer of mankind. He proved His verbal claims with literal miracles. Jesus said, “Peace be still” and the winds and the sea obeyed Him! He said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it.” He was speaking of the temple of His body!

Jesus claimed to be God. He not only said He was God (anyone can say that), He offered proof of His claim by doing things only God could do. If God came to earth as a man, you would expect Him to say and do things that would clearly distinguish Him from all other men. Jesus did!

The Bible On Love

Another outstanding basis for proof that the Bible is divinely inspired is its unparalleled teaching on love. How is this proof of divinity? We are social creatures. God made us that way. One of man’s greatest needs is to love and be loved. The Bible reveals the most comprehensive teaching on love there is.

You cannot find a more comprehensive teaching on love in any other religion, philosophy or system of thought. Not even close. Love is more than an emotion, it’s proactive and it’s powerful enough to soften the hardest heart when nothing else will. Love is one of the attributes of God (1 John 4:8).

No one has ever taken love to the level Jesus did. It was Christ who said, “Love your enemies.” But He didn’t just say, “Love your enemies.” He said, “Love your enemies”, and while He hung on the cross, in unimaginable pain from the top of His head to the tips of His toes, He prayed,

“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

No mere man has ever loved like that. This love was so profound, so completely antithetical to human nature, the thief on his right recognized His divinity, and said, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus replied, “This day you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

No one could make up such stories and expect anyone to believe them.

Christianity is not a religion, it’s a revelation. And once you have had the revelation, it leads you to a personal love relationship with God. It is both the law of God and the love of God that draw us to Christ. Our relationship with God is based on faith, hope and love in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

If everyone loved God and loved their neighbors as themselves we would live in a perfect world! The opposite of love is not just hate, it’s also selfishness. For God so loved the world He gave! Selfishness is the essence of sin, and giving is the fruit of love. Man will never solve his own problems because man is the problem. Man (without God) is inherently selfish.

God Is Love

The Bible says, “God is love”, so love is an attribute of God’s divine nature. The divinity is found in the fact that the Bible has the definitive answer to the question, “What is love?” Why is that important? Man’s greatest need is to love and be loved.

The greatest commandment in all of the Bible is to love God with all you heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Where is the greatness in that? Because if everyone embraces just those two commandments we would live in a perfect world. But the Bible does much more than tell us to love, from cover to cover the whole point of God’s revelation is His redeeming love for mankind. And because our father loves His children, He wants us to love each other.

The concept of love is defined, explained, illustrated, exemplified, proved and demonstrated hundreds of ways in the Bible. The word is used more than 300 times. number of times the word is used is not the point. The fact is, you cannot find a more comprehensive teaching on love in any other religion, philosophy or system of thought. Not even close. Love is more than an emotion, it’s proactive and it’s powerful enough to soften the hardest heart when nothing else will.

In the English language we have only one word for love. You can say, “I love spaghetti, I love my dog, and I love my wife.” Do you love your wife in the same way you love your dog? In the ancient Greek language of the New Testament, there were four words to express the idea of love,

• Storge means: Affection. It is the word used to describe love for your father, or mother.
• Philos means: Friendship and fondness.
• Eros means: The intimate love between a husband and wife.
• Agape means: Unconditional, self-sacrificial love. Agape love means ─ I love you even if you don’t love me back. That is what makes you valuable in God’s sight. It’s not because you are so good, or so religious. Your value is in the fact that He loves you in spite of all your shortcomings and sin!

Looking to First Corinthians 13:4-7, God’s Word moves from the motive of love to the reality of how love is expressed.

“Love is patient, love is kind, {and} is not jealous; love does not brag {and} is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong {suffered,}does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

Man will never solve his own problems because man is the problem. Man (without God) is inherently selfish. Paul’s definition of love goes against our natural inclination to be self-centered.

The greatest commandment in the Bible is to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40).
God is love (1 John 4:8).
For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16).
We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
To love God you must love your brother (1 John 4:20).
If you mistreat your wife your prayers are hindered (1 Peter 3:7).
Love is defined (1 Corinthians 13: 1-8).
We are obligated to love (Romans 13:1-8).
Sacrificial love is the key to a happy marriage (Ephesians 5:25).
There is no greater love than to sacrifice your life to save a friend (John 15:13).
Love is the distinguishing mark of the Christian (John 13:35).
True love is unconditional (Luke 6:32).
Love includes your enemies (Luke 6:27).
Love is the greatest spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 13: 13).
Obedience to God is based on love (John 14:15).
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
There are hundreds more!

No One Has Ever Taken Love To The Level Jesus Did

It was Christ who said, “Love your enemies.” But He didn’t just say, “Love your enemies.” It was agape love that Christ demonstrated on the cross. While He hung there in unspeakable agony, His accusers laughed, mocked, ridiculed, and spat at Him. The soldiers were throwing dice at the foot of the cross to see who would keep His robe. It was in this context that He prayed:

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. “

No mere man could have expressed concern for the eternal destiny of others under those circumstances. This love was so profound, so completely antithetical to human nature, the thief on his right recognized Jesus was divine and said,

“Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus replied,

“This day you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

No one could make up such stories and expect anyone to believe it. Love is the distinguishing mark of the man of God. Where else will you find a more authoritative teaching on what love is? The dictionary, the Encyclopedia Britannica or People Magazine? The Bible contains the most comprehensive teaching on love that there is.

The Bible shows me how to express my love for God and my neighbor in a tangible way. See for yourself:

“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled {the} Law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of {the} Law” (Rom.13:8–10).

Thanks to the moral law, love can actually be weighed and measured against an objective standard. Without the guidelines of the law, love would be abstract and relative. In 1 Cor. 13, we see the effects of love, whereas the moral law defines it.

In His infinite wisdom, God tells us that “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10b). If I truly love my neighbor, according to Romans 13, I will:

• Honor his marriage covenant, and mine, by not lusting after his wife.
• I will forgive him when he wrongs me, rather than committing murder.
• I will honor his property by not stealing it.
• I will tell him the truth (and what truth is) when I speak to him.
• I will rejoice in the blessings God has given him, rather than coveting his goods.

Isn’t that the kind of neighborhood in which you want to live? Can you even begin to imagine what would happen to our world if we all “kept the law” according to this standard?

Jesus’ Teaching On Love

In Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus was asked this question,

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him,”‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

In the verse above Jesus is connecting love to the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are divided into two “tables.” The first 4 commandments teach me how to love God and the next 6 teach me how to love my neighbor.

God is to be loved supremely over all created things. To love people the same way we love God would be idolatry. People are to be loved, but God is to be worshiped!If I love my neighbor, I will not murder him, I will not lust after his wife, I will not steal from him, I will not lie to him, and I will not jealously desire what belongs to him.

Remember, when God says “no” to one thing, He is saying “yes” to something better.

• When God says, “Do not murder,” He is saying, “Forgive your brother.”
• When God says, “Do not commit adultery,” He is saying, “Be faithful to your wife.”
• When God says, “Do not steal,” He is saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
• When God says, “Do not lie,” He is saying, “Tell the truth. It’s truth that sets you free”
• When God says, “Do not covet,” He is saying, “Learn to be content.”

What would our world look like today if everyone adopted this spiritual attitude of love for God and for our neighbor?

The word love and its derivatives (beloved, loves, loving, etc.), are found more than 300 times in the Bible. The first time love is mentioned in both the Old and New Testament, it’s not the love between a man and his wife, a man for his family, nor for his country. In both cases, it’s the love of a father for his son.

The greatest need of the human heart is to love and be loved. So, we should not be surprised to learn that the greatest commandment in the Bible is love! God’s love is not abstract, it is a principled love. Because I love my wife and children there are certain things I do and certain things I will not do. That is principled love. True love has boundaries clearly defined in scripture.

How interesting that the words law and love are spoken in the same breadth. Inextricably woven together we discover God’s law of love! We are indebted by divine decree to love our neighbor.

People are finite creatures, and as such, our love for them has limits, but our love for God must be preeminent. Our loyalty to Him is never to be denied or compromised. When man’s laws conflict with God’s laws we must obey God rather than men.

Law and love do not contradict each other, they define each other. This verse reveals that love is not just an emotion. God defines love as something that is proactive. It’s not just what you don’t do, it’s what you do and why you do it that counts.

Who is my neighbor?

In Luke 10:29-37 Jesus is asked, “Who is my neighbor?” His answer was not what the man wanted to hear. In fact, it was shocking. Read the story and I’ll explain why,

“But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied and said, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him, and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on {them;} and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers {hands?}” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

This was shocking because of all the people Jesus could have used for His illustration the Samaritan’s were considered infidels by most of the people to whom He was speaking!

In using the Samaritan, Jesus was addressing the age-old problem of pride, prejudice, and bigotry. It was God who created the races and languages at the Tower of Babel back in Genesis chapter 11. God loves all men and women equally. The story ends with the admonition to, “Go and do the same.”

According to Jesus being religious is not synonymous with true spirituality.

How interesting that Jesus names a priest and a Levite. They both claimed to be religious leaders, yet both walk right past a needful man and leave him for dead. Jesus is teaching that true spiritually manifests itself not in religion, but in love.

The Bible clearly states that religion without love is worthless. What God desires is for His people to be just, to love mercy, and to walk in humility before Him. This is from Micah 6:8. Again, it’s about relationships not religion. Here is the same idea stated negatively from I John 4:19-21 in the New Testament:

“We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Love my enemy?

When Jesus began His teaching ministry 2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire ruled the world with an iron fist. They won all their arguments by killing their enemies. The teaching of Jesus could not have been more antithetical to the worlds idea of justice. In Matthew 5:44 Jesus said, “…love your enemies.” In Matthew 5:46 Jesus said,

“For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax gatherers do the same?”

In other words, if you only love those who love you, how are you any different from the rest of the world? To put this in modern terminology, even the Mafia supposedly love their own family members, but they kill their enemies. If you only love those who love you, Jesus is asking how are you any different from the Mafia?

Love can change the hardest hearts when nothing else can. Chapter 13 of First Corinthians contains what many believe to be the Bible’s most noble and magnificent chapter on love. A diamond among the jewels, it’s known as “the love chapter.” In 1 Corinthians 13:1-8, Paul puts love in perspective:

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

God says that love is greater than the greatest orator who lacks love. Love is divine; words and rhetoric alone mean nothing by comparison. Paul goes on to say, if you are a prophet without peer, if you can explain the secrets and the mysteries of the universe so even a child can understand, if your motive is not love, then your insights mean nothing before God. The most generous philanthropist and even martyrdom mean nothing if the driving force behind it is not love. In 1 Samuel 16:7 the Bible says, “Only man looks on the outer appearance, God looks on your heart!”

The Bible Contains The Greatest Moral Code Known To Man—The Ten Commandments

You can know the Ten Commandments were written by God not by man because if man obeyed them, we would live in a perfect world. Here is just one example from the seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”

The very first institution ordained by God in the Bible was marriage. And, it is defined by our Creator as a sacred relationship between one man and one woman. In Genesis 2:24 God said,

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Then, in Genesis 39:9 (500 years before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments), we find Joseph resisting the advances of his employers wife by saying,

“There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

How could Joseph have such a deep conviction about sexual immorality 500 years before God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai? Romans 2:15 provides the answer,

“The law is written on every man’s heart.”

In other words, every man from the beginning of time until the end of the world whether or not he has ever heard of Jesus or even seen a bible knows instinctively that it’s wrong to have another man’s wife. There is no other way to account for this fact other than to acknowledge that our creator put his moral law in every heart.

Then in Exodus 20:14, the seventh of the Ten Commandments is,

“You shall not commit adultery.”

When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, pagan religions celebrated sexual immorality as a form of worship to their gods. The Canaanites and the Babylonians worshiped Baal, which included temple prostitution. The Greeks and Romans also had their own forms of “sanctified prostitution.”

The doctrine of marital fidelity is a foreign concept to all man-made religions. The Judeo-Christian worldview alone teaches that human sexuality is sacred and exclusive. It is sacred (holy) because it began in the mind of God.

Islam: The Koran teaches that a man can have 4 wives and numerous concubines. Mohammed, the founder of Islam had 11 wives. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism had 33 wives.

“Nature” itself teaches that the doctrine of polygamy cannot be divinely inspired since the ratio of men to women in the world is 1 to 1. If there were 10 women to every man in the world this doctrine might not be so obviously false.

Hinduism: In India, the devadasi (day-vah-dah-see) system is the Hindu practice of temple prostitution. The practice of “dedicating” girls to Hindu gods has existed for more than 5,000 years. Children taken from a lower social status (called a “lower caste”) are forced (by social and economic pressure) to begin a life of prostitution at age 11 or 12. Women are told that this “service to the Gods” is a “holy duty” they must fulfill. Ironically, high caste Hindu priests will never eat from or even touch the cup or bowl of a lower caste Hindu, but they will have sexual intercourse with them!

Buddhism: This has no explicit sexual code. Having no code, by default, is a code. Many Buddhist monks have expressed the opinion that engaging in prostitution purely for helping others can be a source of karmic merit. One of the “helps” they provide is by making offerings and gifts to Buddhist temples! That is one reason the Buddhist hierarchy is silent on prostitution, and one reason many temples are so lavish.

Christianity: In Deuteronomy 23:17-18 the Bible says,

“There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.”

Matt 5:27-29 says,

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery. ‘But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Faithfulness to one’s marital partner in thought, word, and deed is exclusive to the Judeo-Christian worldview! In all man-made religions women are considered to be of lesser value than men, and treated as commodities.

Only the Judeo-Christian worldview teaches that men and women are created in the image of God and are of equal value. God’s moral law as contained in the Ten Commandments clearly separates Christianity from man-made religions because it represents the highest moral code known to man.

What man would make up a law against lust and who but God could enforce it? So much for the false notion that all religions are basically the same.

The Nature of God and the Trinity—More Proof the Bible is True

Is the Trinity a fact or is it fiction? Do Christians really worship three god’s as some claim? Is the Trinity a blatant contradiction and a damnable heresy?
The Trinity is one of the most frequently attacked doctrines by the cults and false religions.

The fact is, creation is filled with illustrations of spiritual truths that reveal the many attributes of God, not the least of which is the Trinity. In fact, there are tri-unities all around us! For example:

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity revealed the fact that life as we know it consists of three things, time, space, and matter (which is energy).
Interestingly, the Bible starts out with these words:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

In the beginning (that’s time), God created (that’s energy), the heavens (that’s space), and the earth (that’s matter)!

We live in time: Time has three elements, the past, the present and the future. The past is not the present, the present is not the future and the future is not the past. One in not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

Space: We live in a three-dimensional world, Height, width and depth. Height is not width, width is not depth and depth is not height. One in not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

Matter: All Matter is made up of atoms. All atoms consist of three basic components, protons, neutrons and electrons. A proton is not a neutron, a neutron is not an electron, and an electron is not a proton. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other (and still remain a complete atom), and yet each is distinct!

Two thousand years after the New Testament was written, we still cannot see an atom!

Heb. 11:3,

“By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

Interesting too is the fact that protons are positively charged and electrons are negatively charged. Like trying to stick two magnets together, these two components repel each other. Theoretically, atoms should explode and scientists cannot figure out what holds them together.

Col. 1:17 says,

“And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

The Bible says man is made in the image of God. I Thess. 5:23,

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

According to this verse, you have a triune nature. You have a body, a soul and a spirit. In the Greek of the New Testament, the word body is soma, soul is psuche, and spirit is pneuma. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

How about the human mind?
Scientists tell us that the human mind (brain) is the most complex thing in the universe. The mind is also a trinity. The mind, the will, and the emotions. Your mind (intellect) is not the same as your emotions. Your emotions are not the same as your will. Your will is not the same as your mind. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

Earth wind and fire
Earth itself has three layers. The crust, the mantle of rock, and the core which is molten. The Earth is the third planet from the Sun.

Wind
You can live for thirty days without food, you can go three days without water, but you can’t go three minutes without air. The air you breath is 78.1 % Nitrogen, 20.9% oxygen, 1% water vapor.

Fire
Take a close look at a campfire. It is blue at the bottom, orange in the middle and white at the top.

Water
The world is two-thirds water. Your body is two-thirds water. One molecule of water consists of two hydrogen atoms and one atom of oxygen. Hydrogen by itself is flammable. Oxygen by itself is flammable. But, if you put them both together in a two to one ratio you have a third substance with which you can use to extinguish a fire! Can you rationally understand that? The combination of three atoms makes one molecule of water.

The Sun
When you look at the sun you might say, “I see the sun,” but in reality all you are seeing is the light of the sun. This light allows us to see things on earth.

Just the same, when you feel the heat from the sun you say, “I feel the sun,” but in reality you only feel the heat produced by the sun which makes all of life possible on earth.

Science tells us that the sun is actually a burning gas. So, I see the light produced by the burning gas and I feel its heat. The one star (the sun) has three distinct features – gas, light, and heat – all existing simultaneously, which make up the one sun. In that sence the sun has a triune nature.

Light
When Einstein discovered the theory of relativity he was trying to answer the question, “What is light?” Interestingly, the Bible says, “God is light.”

Today we know, there is invisible light, visible light and the heat associated with light. Invisible light such as Micro Waves, Radio Waves, X-Rays, Gamma Rays etc., are invisible. They are neither seen nor felt.

1 Timothy 1:17, says God the Father is invisible,

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, {be} honor and glory forever and ever.”

The same idea is found in John 4:24,

“God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Then we have visible light which is both seen and felt. The same is true of Jesus:

John 1:1, “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:14, “ And the word became flesh, and we beheld His glory.”

I John 1:1, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life.”

And the Heat that is associated with Light parallels the heat associated with the conviction of the Holy Spirit:

Matthew 3:11 says, As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John 16:8, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment.”

The word translated “Convict” in the original Greek means: To expose the hidden things, to chastise moral sense.

When you get convicted of sin, you get hot!

As you can see, weather or not you can rationally understand something does not preclude you from believing it! Do you understand atomic theory? I do not. But, that does not prevent me from enjoying the benefits of electricity coming from our atomic power plants.

I have demonstrated that the Trinity is not illogical, irrational, or contradictory
Did any of you have eggs for breakfast this morning? It consists of the shell, the white and the yoke. Were you eating three eggs? Even a chicken can answer that one! If you are still adamant, that God cannot be a Trinity, I’ll ask you the same question God asked Job in Job chapter 38:

“Who is this who darkens council by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have the understanding.”

There are 1,00,000,000,000 stars in our galaxy, and a 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the known universe (that is because that is only as far as we can see). God created all of them, He holds them all in place, and calls them all by name! For a mortal man who has never seen God to state emphatically that God cannot be in heaven, come to earth as a man, and be in all places at the same time is to me, a greater mystery than the Trinity!

If the resurrection is true then Christianity is true.

Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853) was the famous Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University, and succeeded Justice Joseph Story as the Dane Professor of Law in the same university, upon Story’s death in 1846.

H. W, H. Knott says of this great authority in Jurisprudence: “Ib the efforts of Story and Greenleaf is to be ascribed the rise of the Harvard Law School to its eminent position among the legal schools of the United States.!

Greenleaf produced a famous work entitled A treatise on the Law of Evidence which “is still considered the greatest single authority on evidence in the entire literature of legal procedure.”

In 1846, while still Professor of Law at Harvard, Greenleaf wrote a volume entitled An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice. In his classic work the author examines the value of the testimony of the apostles to the resurrection of Christ. The following are this brilliant jurist’s critical observations:

“The great truths which the apostles declared, were, that Christ had risen from the dead, and that only through repentance from sin, and faith in Him, could men hope for salvation. This doctrine they asserted with one voice, everywhere, not only under the greatest discouragements, but in the face of the most appalling errors that can be presented to the mind of man. Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public tribunal. His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world. The laws of every country were against the teachings of His disciples. The interests and passions of all the rulers and great men in the world were against them. The fashion of the world was against them.

“Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments, and cruel deaths. Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, rejoicing. As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage. They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted; and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most melancholy and terrific frequency. It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.

“If it were morally possible for them to have been deceived in this matter every human motive operated to lead them to discover and avow their error. To have persisted in so gross a falsehood, after it was known to them, was not only to encounter, for life, all the evils which man could inflict, from without, but to endure also the pangs of inward and conscious guilt; with no hope of future peace, no testimony of a good conscience, no expectation of honor or esteem among men, no hope of happiness in this life, or in the world to come.”

How Powerful is the Love of Jesus?

“I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of people would die for him.”

Napoleon Bonaparte

As the french skeptic Ernest Renan admitted,

“It would take a Jesus to forge a Jesus, and if it is true that what we have in the Bible is a giant forgery, then let us worship the individual who was so brilliant as to think up a picture of a person like Jesus of Nazareth and the story of the Word of God.”

James T. Fisher from: A Few Buttons Missing: The Case Book of a Psychiatrist:

“If you were to take the sum total of all authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified of psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene, if you were to combine them and refine them and cleave out all the excess verbiage, if you were to take the whole of the meat and none of the parsley, and if you were to have these unadulterated bits of scientific knowledge concisely expressed by the most capable of living poets, you would have an awkward and incomplete summary of the Sermon on the Mount. And it would suffer immeasurably by comparison.”

This kind of wisdom cannot be found in any other religion, philosophy, or system of thought. Jesus Christ was God incarnate.

A closing illustration

A lady was driving to church on a cold, winter, Sunday morning. On her way she stopped for a red light. Just after the light turned green, her car stalled in the middle of the intersection. As she tried to restart the car, the man behind her laid on his horn. As she attempted to start the car again, she noticed in her rear view mirror the man behind her getting out of his car. He walked right up to her window, bent down and started yelling at her to move her car. He was late for a very important appointment! With her hands shaking, she tried it again, and much to her relief, the car started. Arriving at church she was still visibly shaken by the man’s anger. After the musical portion of the service was over, it was announced, “We have a guest speaker today!” After giving him a grand introduction about how qualified he was and what a wonderful man of God he was, as he was walking up to the pulpit, you guessed it, it was him! This lady was aghast! She stood to her feet, turned around, and walked out. She had no interest in hearing a word this man had to say, and rightly so.

Love is the greatest virtue, and the most life-changing force on earth. Love is greater than academic achievement, economic influence, political power or religion. Pride is self-centered, and therefore, opposed to love. If you need more love, become more loving.

The most profound demonstration of God’s love for mankind is revealed in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was His sacrifice that made atonement for sin and provided redemption not only for man, but for the universe itself. Yes, even the universe is dying. Physicists call it the Second Law of Thermal Dynamics. Theologians know what it’s called and what causes it; it’s called sin. The Bible says that God is going to let sin run its course. After that, He will create new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells-forever!

For more on this, check out Phil’s new book, Where Did God Come From?

Is the Trinity a fact or is it fiction? Do Christians really worship three god’s as some claim? Is the Trinity a blatant contradiction and a damnable heresy?

The Trinity is one of the most frequently attacked doctrines by the cults and false religions.

The fact is, creation is filled with illustrations of spiritual truths that reveal the many attributes of God, not the least of which is the Trinity. In fact, there are tri-unities all around us! For example:

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity revealed the fact that life as we know it consists of three things, time, space, and matter (which is energy).
Interestingly, the Bible starts out with these words:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

In the beginning (that’s time), God created (that’s energy), the heavens (that’s space), and the earth (that’s matter)!

Time: Time has three elements, the past, the present and the future. The past is not the present, the present is not the future and the future is not the past. One in not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

Space: We live in a three-dimensional world, Height, width and depth. Height is not width, width is not depth and depth is not height. One in not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

Matter: All Matter is made up of atoms. All atoms consist of three basic components, protons, neutrons and electrons. A proton is not a neutron, a neutron is not an electron, and an electron is not a proton. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other (and still remain a complete atom), and yet each is distinct!

Two thousand years after the New Testament was written, we still cannot see an atom!

Heb. 11:3,

“By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

Interesting too is the fact that protons are positively charged and electrons are negatively charged. Like trying to stick two magnets together, these two components repel each other. Theoretically, atoms should explode and scientists cannot figure out what holds them together.

Col. 1:17 says,

“And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

The Bible says man is made in the image of God. I Thess. 5:23,

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

According to this verse, you have a triune nature. You have a body, a soul and a spirit. In the Greek of the New Testament, the word body is soma, soul is psuche, and spirit is pneuma. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

How about the human mind?
Scientists tell us that the human mind (brain) is the most complex thing in the universe. The mind is also a trinity. The mind, the will, and the emotions. Your mind (intellect) is not the same as your emotions. Your emotions are not the same as your will. Your will is not the same as your mind. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

Earth wind and fire

Earth itself has three layers. The crust, the mantle of rock, and the core which is molten. The Earth is the third planet from the Sun.

Wind
You can live for thirty days without food, you can go three days without water, but you can’t go three minutes without air. The air you breath is 78.1 % Nitrogen, 20.9% oxygen, 1% water vapor.

Fire
Take a close look at a campfire. It is blue at the bottom, orange in the middle and white at the top.

Water

The world is two-thirds water. Your body is two-thirds water. One molecule of water consists of two hydrogen atoms and one atom of oxygen. Hydrogen by itself is flammable. Oxygen by itself is flammable. But, if you put them both together in a two to one ratio you have a third substance with which you can use to extinguish a fire! Can you rationally understand that? The combination of three atoms makes one molecule of water.

The Sun
When you look at the sun you might say, “I see the sun,” but in reality all you are seeing is the light of the sun. This light allows us to see things on earth.

Just the same, when you feel the heat from the sun you say, “I feel the sun,” but in reality you only feel the heat produced by the sun which makes all of life possible on earth.

Science tells us that the sun is actually a burning gas. So, I see the light produced by the burning gas and I feel its heat. The one star (the sun) has three distinct features – gas, light, and heat – all existing simultaneously, which make up the one sun. In that sence the sun has a triune nature.

Light
When Einstein discovered the theory of relativity he was trying to answer the question, “What is light?” Interestingly, the Bible says, “God is light.”

Today we know, there is invisible light, visible light and the heat associated with light. Invisible light such as Micro Waves, Radio Waves, X-Rays, Gamma Rays etc., are invisible. They are neither seen nor felt. 1 Timothy 1:17, says God the Father is invisible,

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, {be} honor and glory forever and ever.”

The same idea is found in John 4:24,

“God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Then we have visible light which is both seen and felt. The same is true of Jesus. John 1:1,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:14, ” And the word became flesh, and we beheld His glory.”

I John 1:1, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life.”

And the Heat that is associated with Light parallels the heat associated with the conviction of the Holy Spirit:

Matthew 3:11 says,

“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

John 16:8,

“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment.”

The word translated “Convict” in the original Greek means: To expose the hidden things, to chastise moral sense. When you get convicted of sin, you get hot!

As you can see, weather or not you can rationally understand something does not preclude you from believing it! Do you understand atomic theory? I do not. But, that does not prevent me from enjoying the benefits of electricity coming from our atomic power plants.

I have demonstrated that the Trinity is not illogical, irrational, or contradictory. Did any of you have eggs for breakfast this morning? It consists of the shell, the white and the yoke. Were you eating three eggs? Even a chicken can answer that one! If you are still adamant, that God cannot be a Trinity, I’ll ask you the same question God asked Job in Job chapter 38:

“Who is this who darkens council by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have the understanding.”

There are 1,00,000,000,000 stars in our galaxy, and a 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the known universe (that is because that is only as far as we can see). God created all of them, He holds them all in place, and calls them all by name! For a mortal man who has never seen God to state emphatically that God cannot be in heaven, come to earth as a man, and be in all places at the same time is to me, a greater mystery than the Trinity!

Thank you for visiting.

Here is a list of 351 Pictures, Promises, and Prophecies of Jesus Christ Before He Came to Earth as Messiah. What other so-called religious leader can claim his life was prophesied in detail hundreds and even thousands of years before they were born?

1. Gen 3:15 Born of the Seed of a woman (women don’t have”‘seed”) Gal 4:4-5; Matt 1:18
2. Gen 3:15 He will bruise Satan’s head Heb 2:14; Rom 16:20; Col. 1:13-14
3. Gen 5:24 The bodily ascension to heaven illustrated Mark 16:19
4. Gen 9:26-27 The God of Shem will be the Son of Shem Luke 3:36
5. Gen 12:3 Seed of Abraham will bless all nations Gal 3:8; Acts 3:25-26
6. Gen 12:7 The Promise made to Abraham’s Seed Gal 3:16
7. Gen 14:18 A priest after the order of Melchizedek Heb 6:20
8. Gen 14:18 King of Peace and Righteousness Heb 7:2
9. Gen 14:18 The Last Supper foreshadowed Matt 26:26-29
10. Gen 17:19 Seed of Isaac (Gen 21:12) Rom 9:7
11. Gen 22:8 The Lamb of God promised John 1:29
12. Gen 22:18 As Isaac’s seed, will bless all nations Gal 3:16
13. Gen 26:2-5 The Seed of Isaac promised as the Redeemer Heb 11:18
14. Gen 28:12 The Bridge to heaven John 1:51
15. Gen 28:14 The Seed of Jacob Luke 3:34
16. Gen 49:10 The time of His coming Luke 2:1-7; Gal 4:4
17. Gen 49:10 The Seed of Judah Luke 3:33
18. Gen 49:10 Called Shiloh or One Sent John 17:3
19. Gen 49:10 Messiah to come before Judah lost identity John 11:47-52
20. Gen 49:10 Unto Him shall the obedience of the people be John 10:16
21. Ex 3:13-15 The Great “I AM” John 4:26; 8:58
22. Ex 12:5 A Lamb without blemish Heb 9:14; 1 Pet 1:19
23. Ex 12:13 The blood of the Lamb saves from wrath Rom 5:8
24. Ex 12:21-27 Christ is our Passover 1 Cor 5:7
25. Ex 12:46 Not a bone of the Lamb to be broken John 19:31-36
26. Ex 15:2 His exaltation predicted as Yeshua Acts 7:55-56
27. Ex 15:11 His Character-Holiness Luke 1:35; Acts 4:27 2
28. Ex 17:6 The Spiritual Rock of Israel 1 Cor 10:4
29. Ex 33:19 His Character-Merciful Luke 1:72
30. Lev 1:2-9 His sacrifice a sweet smelling savor unto God Eph 5:2
31. Lev 14:11 The leper cleansed-Sign to priesthood Luke 5:12-14; Acts 6:7
32. Lev 16:15-17 Prefigures Christ’s once-for-all death Heb 9:7-14
33. Lev 16:27 Suffering outside the Camp Matt 27:33; Heb. 13:11-12
34. Lev 17:11 The Blood-the life of the flesh Matt 26:28; Mark 10:45
35. Lev 17:11 It is the blood that makes atonement Rom. 3:23-24; 1 John 1:7
36. Lev 23:36-37 The Drink-offering: “If any man thirst” John 7:37
37. Num 9:12 Not a bone of Him broken John 19:31-36
38. Num 21:9 The serpent on a pole-Christ lifted up John 3:14-18; 12:32
39. Num 24:17 Time: “I shall see him, but not now.” John 1:14; Gal 4:4
40. Deut 18:15 “This is of a truth that prophet” John 6:14
41. Deut 18:15-16 “Had you believed Moses, you would believe me.” John 5:45-47
42. Deut 18:18 Sent by the Father to speak His word John 8:28-29
43. Deut 18:19 Whoever will not hear must bear his sin Acts 3:22-23
44. Deut 21:23 Cursed is he that hangs on a tree Gal 3:10-13
45. Joshua 5:14-15 The Captain of our salvation Heb 2:10
46. Ruth 4:4-10 Christ, our kinsman, has redeemed us Eph 1:3-7
47. 1 Sam 2:35 A Faithful Priest Heb. 2:17; 3:1-3, 6; 7:24-25
48. 1 Sam 2:10 Shall be an anointed King to the Lord Matt 28:18; John 12:15
49. 2 Sam 7:12 He will be from the seed (descendant) of David Matt 1:1
50. 2 Sam 7:13 His Kingdom is everlasting 2 Pet 1:11
51. 2 Sam 7:14a The Son of God Luke 1:32; Rom 1:3-4
52. 2 Sam 7:16 David’s house established forever Luke 3:31; Rev 22:16
53. 2 Ki 2:11 The bodily ascension to heaven illustrated Luke 24:51
54. 1 Chr 17:11 David’s Seed Matt 1:1; 9:27
55. 1 Chr 17:12-13 Messiah will reign on David’s throne forever Luke 1:32-33
56. 1 Chr 17:13 “I will be His Father, He…my Son.” Heb 1:5
57. Job 9:32-33 Mediator between man and God 1 Tim 2:5
58. Job 19:25 Our Redeemer lives Heb 9:12
59. Psa 2:1-3 The enmity of kings foreordained Acts 4:25-28
60. Psa 2:2 To own the title, Anointed (Christ) John 1:41; Acts 2:36 3
61. Psa 2:6 His Character-Holiness John 8:46; Rev 3:7
62. Psa 2:6 To own the title King Matt 2:2
63. Psa 2:7 Declared the Beloved Son Matt 3:17; Rom 1:4
64. Psa 2:7-8 The Crucifixion and Resurrection intimated Acts 13:29-33
65. Psa 2:8-9 Rule the nations with a rod of iron Rev 2:27; 12:5; 19:15
66. Psa 2:12 Life comes through faith in Him John 20:31
67. Psa 8:2 The mouths of babes perfect His praise Matt 21:16
68. Psa 8:5-6 His humiliation and exaltation Heb 2:5-9
69. Psa 9:7-10 Judge the world in righteousness Acts 17:31
70. Psa 16:10 His body will not decay (see corruption) Acts 2:31; 13:35
71. Psa 16:9-11 He will rise from the dead John 20:9
72. Psa 17:15 The resurrection predicted Luke 24:6
73. Psa 18:2-3 The horn of salvation Luke 1:69-71
74. Psa 22:1 Forsaken because of sins of others 2 Cor 5:21
75. Psa 22:1 “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” Matt 27:46
76. Psa 22:2 Darkness upon Calvary for three hours Matt 27:45
77. Psa 22:7 They shoot out the lip and shake the head Matt 27:39-44
78. Psa 22:8 “He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him” Matt 27:43
79. Psa 22:9-10 Born the Savior Luke 2:7
80. Psa 22:12-13 They seek His death John 19:6
81. Psa 22:14 His blood poured out when they pierced His side John 19:34
82. Psa 22:14-15 Suffered agony on Calvary Mark 15:34-37
83. Psa 22:15 He thirsted John 19:28
84. Psa 22:16 They pierced His hands and His feet John 19:34-37; 20:27
85. Psa 22:17-18 Stripped Him before the stares of men Luke 23:34-35
86. Psa 22:18 They parted His garments John 19:23-24
87. Psa 22:20-21 He committed Himself to God Luke 23:46
88. Psa 22:20-21 Satanic power bruising the Redeemer’s heel Heb 2:14
89. Psa 22:22 His Resurrection declared John 20:17
90. Psa 22:27-28 He shall rule the nations Col 1:16
91. Psa 22:31 “It is finished” John 19:30; Heb 10:10-12, 14, 18
92. Psa 23:1 “I am the Good Shepherd” John 10:11; 1 Pet 2:25
93. Psa 24:3 His exaltation predicted Acts 1:11; Phil 2:9 4
94. Psa 30:3 His resurrection predicted Acts 2:32
95. Psa 31:5 “Into Your hands I commit my spirit” Luke 23:46
96. Psa 31:11 His acquaintances fled from Him Mark 14:50
97. Psa 31:13 They took counsel to put Him to death Matt 27:1; John 11:53
98. Psa 31:14-15 “He trusted in God, let Him deliver him” Matt 27:43
99. Psa 34:20 Not a bone of His shall be broken John 19:31-36
100. Psa 35:11 False witnesses rose up against Him Matt 26:59
101. Psa 35:19 He was hated without a cause John 15:25
102. Psa 38:11 His friends stood afar off Luke 23:49
103. Psa 38:12 Enemies try to entangle Him by craft Mark 14:1; Matt 22:15
104. Psa 38:12-13 Silent before His accusers Matt 27:12-14
105. Psa 38:20 He went about doing good Acts 10:38
106. Psa 40:2-5 The joy of His resurrection predicted John 20:20
107. Psa 40:6-8 His delight-the will of the Father John 4:34; Heb 10:5-10
108. Psa 40:9 He was to preach the Righteousness in Israel Matt 4:17
109. Psa 40:14 Confronted by adversaries in the Garden John 18:4-6
110. Psa 41:9 Betrayed by a friend John 13:18
111. Psa 45:2 Words of Grace come from His lips John 1:17; Luke 4:22
112. Psa 45:6 To own the title, God or Elohim Heb 1:8
113. Psa 45:7 A special anointing by the Holy Spirit Matt 3:16; Heb. 1:9
114. Psa 45:7-8 Called the Christ (Messiah or Anointed) Luke 2:11
115. Psa 45:17 His name remembered forever Eph 1:20-21; Heb. 1:8
116. Psa 55:12-14 Betrayed by a friend, not an enemy John 13:18
117. Psa 55:15 Unrepentant death of the Betrayer Matt 27:3-5; Acts 1:16-19
118. Psa 68:18 To give gifts to men Eph 4:7-16
119. Psa 68:18 Ascended into Heaven Luke 24:51
120. Psa 69:4 Hated without a cause John 15:25
121. Psa 69:8 A stranger to own brethren John 1:11; 7:5
122. Psa 69:9 Zealous for the Lord’s House John 2:17
123. Psa 69:14-20 Messiah’s anguish of soul before crucifixion Matt 26:36-45
124. Psa 69:20 “My soul is exceeding sorrowful” Matt 26:38
125. Psa 69:21 Given vinegar in thirst Matt 27:34
126. Psa 69:26 The Savior given and smitten by God John 17:4; 18:11 5
127. Psa 72:10-11 Great persons were to visit Him Matt 2:1-11
128. Psa 72:16 The corn of wheat to fall into the Ground John 12:24-25
129. Psa 72:17 Belief on His name will produce offspring John 1:12-13
130. Psa 72:17 All nations shall be blessed by Him Gal 3:8
131. Psa 72:17 All nations shall call Him blessed John 12:13; Rev 5:8-12
132. Psa 78:1-2 He would teach in parables Matt 13:34-35
133. Psa 78:2b To speak the Wisdom of God with authority Matt 7:29
134. Psa 80:17 The Man of God’s right hand Mark 14:61-62
135. Psa 88 The Suffering and Reproach of Calvary Matt 27:26-50
136. Psa 88:8 They stood afar off and watched Luke 23:49
137. Psa 89:27 Firstborn Col 1:15-18
138. Psa 89:27 Emmanuel to be higher than earthly kings Luke 1:32-33
139. Psa 89:35-37 David’s Seed, throne, kingdom endure forever Luke 1:32-33
140. Psa 89:36-37 His character-Faithfulness Rev 1:5; 19:11
141. Psa 90:2 He is from everlasting (Micah 5:2) John 1:1
142. Psa 91:11-12 Identified as Messianic, used to tempt Christ Luke 4:10-11
143. Psa 97:9 His exaltation predicted Acts 1:11; Eph 1:20
144. Psa 100:5 His character-Goodness Matt 19:16-17
145. Psa 102:1-11 The Suffering and Reproach of Calvary John 19:16-30
146. Psa 102:25-27 Messiah is the Preexistent Son Heb 1:10-12
147. Psa 109:25 Ridiculed Matt 27:39
148. Psa 110:1 Son of David Matt 22:42-43
149. Psa 110:1 To ascend to the right-hand of the Father Mark 16:19
150. Psa 110:1 David’s son called Lord Matt 22:44-45
151. Psa 110:4 A priest after Melchizedek’s order Heb 6:20
152. Psa 112:4 His character-Compassionate, Gracious, et al Matt 9:36
153. Psa 118:17-18 Messiah’s Resurrection assured Luke 24:5-7; 1 Cor 15:20
154. Psa 118:22-23 The rejected stone is Head of the corner Matt 21:42-43
155. Psa 118:26a The Blessed One presented to Israel Matt 21:9
156. Psa 118:26b To come while Temple standing Matt 21:12-15
157. Psa 132:11 He will be a descendant of David (the fruit of His Body) Luke 1:32; Act 2:30
158. Psa 129:3 He was scourged Matt 27:26
159. Psa 138:1-6 The supremacy of David’s Seed amazes kings Matt 2:2-6 6
160. Psa 147:3-6 The earthly ministry of Christ described Luke 4:18
161. Prov 1:23 He will send the Holy Spirit John 16:7
162. Prov 8:23 Foreordained from everlasting Rev 13:8; 1 Pet 1:19-20
163. Song 5:16 The altogether lovely One John 1:17
164. Isa 2:3 He shall teach all nations John 4:25
165. Isa 2:4 He shall judge among the nations John 5:22
166. Isa 6:1 Isaiah saw His glory John 12:40-41
167. Isa 6:8 The One Sent by God John 12:38-45
168. Isa 6:9-10 Parables fall on deaf ears Matt 13:13-15
169. Isa 6:9-12 Blinded to Christ and deaf to His words Acts 28:23-29
170. Isa 7:14 He will be born of a virgin Luke 1:35
171. Isa 7:14 To be Emmanuel-God with us Matt 1:18-23; 1 Tim 3:16
172. Isa 8:8 Called Emmanuel Matt 28:20
173. Isa 8:14 A stone of stumbling, a Rock of offense 1 Pet 2:8
174. Isa 9:1-2 His ministry to begin in Galilee Matt 4:12-17
175. Isa 9:6 A child born-Humanity Luke 1:31
176. Isa 9:6 A Son given-Deity Luke 1:32; John 1:14; 1 Tim 3:16
177. Isa 9:6 Declared to be the Son of God with power Rom 1:3-4
178. Isa 9:6 The Wonderful One, Peleh Luke 4:22
179. Isa 9:6 The Counselor, Yaatz Matt 13:54
180. Isa 9:6 The Mighty God, El Gibor 1 Cor 1:24; Titus 2:3
181. Isa 9:6 The Everlasting Father, Avi Adth John 8:58; 10:30
182. Isa 9:6 The Prince of Peace, Sar Shalom John 16:33
183. Isa 9:7 To establish an everlasting kingdom Luke 1:32-33
184. Isa 9:7 His Character-Just John 5:30
185. Isa 9:7 No end to his Government, Throne, and Peace Luke 1:32-33
186. Isa 11:1 Called a Nazarene-the Branch, Netzer Matt 2:23
187. Isa 11:1 A rod out of Jesse-Son of Jesse Luke 3:23-32
188. Isa 11:2 Anointed One by the Spirit Matt 3:16-17; Acts 10:38
189. Isa 11:2 His Character-Wisdom, Knowledge, et al Col 2:3
190. Isa 11:3 He would know their thoughts Luke 6:8; John 2:25
191. Isa 11:4 Judge in righteousness Acts 17:31
192. Isa 11:4 Judges with the sword of His mouth Rev 2:16; 19:11, 15 7
193. Isa 11:5 Character: Righteous & Faithful Rev 19:11
194. Isa 11:10 The Gentiles seek Him John 12:18-21
195. Isa 12:2 Called Jesus-Yeshua Matt 1:21
196. Isa 22:22 The One given all authority to govern Rev 3:7
197. Isa 25:8 The Resurrection predicted 1 Cor 15:54
198. Isa 26:19 His power of Resurrection predicted Matt 27:50-54
199. Isa 28:16 The Messiah is the precious corner stone Acts 4:11-12
200. Isa 28:16 The Sure Foundation 1 Cor 3:11; Matt 16:18
201. Isa 29:13 He indicated hypocritical obedience to His Word Matt 15:7-9
202. Isa 29:14 The wise are confounded by the Word 1 Cor 1:18-31
203. Isa 32:2 A Refuge-A man shall be a hiding place Matt 23:37
204. Isa 35:4 He will come and save you Matt 1:21
205. Isa 35:5-6 To have a ministry of miracles Matt 11:2-6
206. Isa 40:3-4 Preceded by forerunner John 1:23
207. Isa 40:9 “Behold your God” John 1:36; 19:14
208. Isa 40:10 He will come to reward Rev 22:12
209. Isa 40:11 A shepherd-compassionate life-giver John 10:10-18
210. Isa 42:1-4 The Servant-as a faithful, patient redeemer Matt 12:18-21
211. Isa 42:2 Meek and lowly Matt 11:28-30
212. Isa 42:3 He brings hope for the hopeless John 4
213. Isa 42:4 The nations shall wait on His teachings John 12:20-26
214. Isa 42:6 The Light (salvation) of the Gentiles Luke 2:32
215. Isa 42:1-6 His is a worldwide compassion Matt 28:19-20
216. Isa 42:7 Blind eyes opened John 9:25-38
217. Isa 43:11 He is the only Savior Acts 4:12
218. Isa 44:3 He will send the Spirit of God John 16:7-13
219. Isa 45:21-25 He is Lord and Savior Phil 3:20; Titus 2:13
220. Isa 45:23 He will be the Judge John 5:22; Rom 14:11
221. Isa 46:9-10 Declares things not yet done John 13:19
222. Isa 48:12 The First and the Last John 1:30; Rev 1:8, 17
223. Isa 48:16-17 He came as a Teacher John 3:2
224. Isa 49:1 Called from the womb-His humanity Matt 1:18
225. Isa 49:5 A Servant from the womb Luke 1:31; Phil 2:7 8
226. Isa 49:6 He will restore Israel Acts 3:19-21; 15:16-17
227. Isa 49:6 He is Salvation for Israel Luke 2:29-32
228. Isa 49:6 He is the Light of the Gentiles John 8:12; Acts 13:47
229. Isa 49:6 He is Salvation unto the ends of the earth Acts 15:7-18
230. Isa 49:7 He is despised of the Nation John 1:11; 8:48-49; 19:14-15
231. Isa 50:3 Heaven is clothed in black at His humiliation Luke 23:44-45
232. Isa 50:4 He is a learned counselor for the weary Matt 7:29; 11:28-29
233. Isa 50:5 The Servant bound willingly to obedience Matt 26:39
234. Isa 50:6a “I gave my back to those who struck Me” Matt 27:26
235. Isa 50:6b He was smitten on the cheeks Matt 26:67
236. Isa 50:6c He was spat upon Matt 27:30
237. Isa 52:7 Published good tidings upon mountains Matt 5:12; 15:29; 28:16
238. Isa 52:13 The Servant exalted Acts 1:8-11; Eph 1:19-22; Phil 2:5-9
239. Isa 52:14 The Servant shockingly abused Luke 18:31-34; Matt 26:67-68
240. Isa 52:15 Nations startled by message of the Servant Luke 18:31-34; Matt 26:67-68
241. Isa 52:15 His blood shed sprinkles nations Heb 9:13-14; Rev 1:5
242. Isa 53:1 His people would not believe Him John 12:37-38
243. Isa 53:2 Appearance of an ordinary man Phil 2:6-8
244. Isa 53:3a Despised Luke 4:28-29
245. Isa 53:3b Rejected Matt 27:21-23
246. Isa 53:3c Great sorrow and grief Matt 26:37-38; Luke 19:41; Heb 4:15
247. Isa 53:3d Men hide from being associated with Him Mark 14:50-52
248. Isa 53:4a He would have a healing ministry Matt 8:16-17
249. Isa 53:4b Thought to be cursed by God Matt 26:66; 27:41-43
250. Isa 53:5a Bears penalty for mankind’s iniquities 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 2:9
251. Isa 53:5b His sacrifice provides peace between man and God Col 1:20
252. Isa 53:5c His sacrifice would heal man of sin 1 Pet 2:24
253. Isa 53:6a He would be the sin-bearer for all mankind 1 John 2:2; 4:10
254. Isa 53:6b God’s will that He bear sin for all mankind Gal 1:4
255. Isa 53:7a Oppressed and afflicted Matt 27:27-31
256. Isa 53:7b Silent before his accusers Matt 27:12-14
257. Isa 53:7c Sacrificial lamb John 1:29; 1 Pet 1:18-19
258. Isa 53:8a Confined and persecuted Matt 26:47-27:31 9
259. Isa 53:8b He would be judged John 18:13-22
260. Isa 53:8c Killed Matt 27:35
261. Isa 53:8d Dies for the sins of the world 1 John 2:2
262. Isa 53:9a Buried in a rich man’s grave Matt 27:57
263. Isa 53:9b Innocent and had done no violence Luke 23:41; John 18:38
264. Isa 53:9c No deceit in his mouth 1 Pet 2:22
265. Isa 53:10a God’s will that He die for mankind John 18:11
266. Isa 53:10b An offering for sin Matt 20:28; Gal 3:13
267. Isa 53:10c Resurrected and live forever Rom 6:9
268. Isa 53:10d He would prosper John 17:1-5
269. Isa 53:11a God fully satisfied with His suffering John 12:27
270. Isa 53:11b God’s servant would justify man Rom 5:8-9, 18-19
271. Isa 53:11c The sin-bearer for all mankind Heb 9:28
272. Isa 53:12a Exalted by God because of his sacrifice Matt 28:18
273. Isa 53:12b He would give up his life to save mankind Luke 23:46
274. Isa 53:12c Numbered with the transgressors Mark 15:27-28
275. Isa 53:12d Sin-bearer for all mankind 1 Pet 2:24
276. Isa 53:12e Intercede to God in behalf of mankind Luke 23:34; Rom 8:34
277. Isa 55:3 Resurrected by God Acts 13:34
278. Isa 55:4a A witness John 18:37
279. Isa 55:4b He is a leader and commander Heb 2:10
280. Isa 55:5 God would glorify Him Acts 3:13
281. Isa 59:16a Intercessor between man and God Matt 10:32
282. Isa 59:16b He would come to provide salvation John 6:40
283. Isa 59:20 He would come to Zion as their Redeemer Luke 2:38
284. Isa 60:1-3 He would show light to the Gentiles Acts 26:23
285. Isa 61:1a The Spirit of God upon him Matt 3:16-17
286. Isa 61:1b The Messiah would preach the good news Luke 4:16-21
287. Isa 61:1c Provide freedom from the bondage of sin John 8:31-36
288. Isa 61:1-2a Proclaim a period of grace Gal 4:4-5
289. Jer 23:5-6 Descendant of David Luke 3:23-31
290. Jer 23:5-6 The Messiah would be both God and Man John 13:13; 1 Tim 3:16
291. Jer 31:22 Born of a virgin Matt 1:18-20 10
292. Jer 31:31 The Messiah would be the new covenant Matt 26:28
293. Jer 33:14-15 Descendant of David Luke 3:23-31
294. Ezek 34:23-24 Descendant of David Matt 1:1
295. Ezek 37:24-25 Descendant of David Luke 1:31-33
296. Dan 2:44-45 The Stone that shall break the kingdoms Matt 21:44
297. Dan 7:13-14a He would ascend into heaven Acts 1:9-11
298. Dan 7:13-14b Highly exalted Eph 1:20-22
299. Dan 7:13-14c His dominion would be everlasting Luke 1:31-33
300. Dan 9:24a To make an end to sins Gal 1:3-5
301. Dan 9:24a To make reconciliation for iniquity Rom 5:10; 2 Cor 5:18-21
302. Dan 9:24b He would be holy Luke 1:35
303. Dan 9:25 His announcement John 12:12-13
304. Dan 9:26a Cut off Matt 16:21; 21:38-39
305. Dan 9:26b Die for the sins of the world Heb 2:9
306. Dan 9:26c Killed before the destruction of the temple Matt 27:50-51
307. Dan 10:5-6 Messiah in a glorified state Rev 1:13-16
308. Hos 11:1 He would be called out of Egypt Matt 2:15
309. Hos 13:14 He would defeat death 1 Cor 15:55-57
310. Joel 2:32 Offer salvation to all mankind Rom 10:9-13
311. Jonah 1:17 Death and resurrection of Christ Matt 12:40; 16:4
312. Mic 5:2 Messiah would be Born in Bethlehem Matt 2:1-6
313. Mic 5:2b Ruler in Israel Luke 1:33
314. Mic 5:2c From everlasting John 8:58
315. Hag 2:6-9 He would visit the second Temple Luke 2:27-32
316. Hag 2:23 Descendant of Zerubbabel Luke 2:27-32
317. Zech 3:8 He will be God’s servant Mark 10:45
318. Zech 6:12-13 Priest and King Heb 8:1
319. Zech 9:9a Greeted with rejoicing in Jerusalem Matt 21:8-10
320. Zech 9:9b Beheld as King John 12:12-13
321. Zech 9:9c The Messiah would be just John 5:30
322. Zech 9:9d The Messiah would bring salvation Luke 19:10
323. Zech 9:9e The Messiah would be humble Matt 11:29
324. Zech 9:9 Presented to Jerusalem riding on a donkey Matt 21:6-9 11
325. Zech 10:4 The cornerstone Eph 2:20
326. Zech 11:4-6a At His coming, Israel to have unfit leaders Matt 23:1-4
327. Zech 11:4-6b Rejection causes God to remove His protection Luke 19:41-44
328. Zech 11:4-6c Rejected in favor of another king John 19:13-15
329. Zech 11:7 Ministry to “poor,” the believing remnant Matt 9:35-36
330. Zech 11:8a Unbelief forces Messiah to reject them Matt 23:33
331. Zech 11:8b Despised Matt 27:20
332. Zech 11:9 Stops ministering to those who rejected Him Matt 13:10-11
333. Zech 11:10-11a Rejection causes God to remove protection Luke 19:41-44
334. Zech 11:10-11b The Messiah would be God John 14:7
335. Zech 11:12-13a Betrayed for thirty pieces of silver Matt 26:14-15
336. Zech 11:12-13b Rejected Matt 26:14-15
337. Zech 11:12-13c Thirty pieces of silver cast in the house of the Lord Matt 27:3-5
338. Zech 11:12-13d The Messiah would be God John 12:45
339. Zech 12:10a The Messiah’s body would be pierced John 19:34-37
340. Zech 12:10b The Messiah would be both God and man John 10:30
341. Zech 12:10c The Messiah would be rejected John 1:11
342. Zech 13:7a God’s will He die for mankind John 18:11
343. Zech 13:7b A violent death Mark 14:27
344. Zech 13:7c Both God and man John 14:9
345. Zech 13:7d Israel scattered as a result of rejecting Him Matt 26:31-56
346. Zech 14:4 He would return to the Mt. of Olives Acts 1:11-12
347. Mal 3:1b Sudden appearance at the temple Mark 11:15-16
348. Mal 3:1c Messenger of the new covenant Matt 26:28
349. Mal 4:5 Forerunner in spirit of Elijah Matt 3:1-3; 11:10-14; 17:11-13
350. Mal 4:6 Forerunner would turn many to righteousness Luke 1:16-17

Typified in the life of Moses – the deliverer
The Passover Lamb (Ex 12, John 1:29,36)
The Manna from Heaven (Ex 16, John 6)
The Rock struck at Horeb (Ex 17, 1 Cor 10:4)
The Tabernacle (Brazen Altar, Lampstand, Table of Showbread, Ark of the covenant etc) (Gen 25-30)
In Leviticus: Jesus is The High Priest

Typified in the sacrifices and offerings (Lev 1-7)
In the Jewish festivals (Passover, Atonement, Lev 16, 23)
In the scapegoat (Lev 16:7-9)
In the person and duties of the High Priest (Lev 16)
In Numbers: The Cloud and The Fire

Messiah would be a King (Num 24:17)
Typified in the bronze serpent (Num 21:8-9)
The Water from the Rock (Num 20)
Deuteronomy: Jesus is the Prophet Like Moses

Messiah will be a prophet (Deut 18:15-19, John 6:14)
Messiah would be worshipped by angels (Deut 32:43, Luke 2:13-14)
Typified in the cities of refuge (Deut 4:41)
Joshua: Jesus is The Captain of Our Salvation

Typified in the person of Joshua (our leader into the promised land)
In the Promised Land
In the Commander of the Army (Josh 5:13-15)
In Judges: Jesus is the Judge And Lawgiver

Typified in the Judges (for He is true Judge of the living and the dead)
In 1 & 2 Kings: Jesus is the Reigning King

Typified in the life of Solomon (the Millennial Reign)
In the life and miracles of the prophet Elisha (multiplying bread 2 Kings 4:42, healing leper 2 Kings 5)
1 & 2 Chronicles: Messiah would be from the tribe of Judah (1 Chron 5:2, Luke 3:23-32)

Typified in Solomon’s temple
In the Wisdom of Solomon (2 Chron 9:22)
Ezra : Jesus is the Faithful Scribe

Typified in person of Zerubbabel, the rebuilder of the temple (Ezra 4)
Nehemiah: Jesus is the Rebuilder of the Walls

Typified in the person of Nehemiah, the rebuilder of the walls of salvation
Esther: Mordecai

Typified in the person of Mordecai
Job: The Dayspring From on High

Typified in the sufferings of Job and the blessings that would follow
Psalms: The Lord Who Is Our Shepherd

Messiah would be the Son of God (Ps 2:7, 12, Matt 17:5)
Messiah would be resurrected (Ps 16:8-10, Acts 13:30-37)
Messiah would be despised & crucified (Ps 22:6-8, 14, Luke 23:21-23, Matt 27:35)
Messiah would be hated without cause (Ps 69:4, Luke 23:13-22)
Messiah would be Lord, seated at the right hand of God (Ps 110:1,5, 1 Pet 3:21-22)
Messiah would be in the line of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4, Heb 6:17-20)
Messiah would be the ‘stone’ rejected by the Jews (Ps 118:22, Matt 21:42-43)
Key Messianic Psalms: Chapters 2, 8, 16, 22, 45, 69, 89, 109, 110, 118

Proverbs & Ecclesiastes: Jesus is the Wisdom of God

Messiah would be from everlasting (Prov 8:22-23, John 17:5)
Messiah would be the Son of God (Prov 30:4, Matt 3:16-17)
Typified in the Wisdom of God (Prov 8:22-31)
Song of Solomon: Jesus is our Heavenly Bridegroom

Typified in the Bridegroom’s love for, and marriage to, the bride His church.
Isaiah: Jesus is the Suffering Servant

Messiah would be born of a virgin (Is 7:14, Luke 1:34-35)
Messiah would be Immanuel “God with us” (Is 7:14, Matt 1:21-23)
Messiah would be God and Man (Is 9:6, John 10:30)
Messiah would have the 7-fold Spirit upon Him (Is 11:1-2, Matt 3:16-17)
Messiah would heal the blind, lame, deaf (Is 35:5-6, Mark 10:51-52)
Messiah would be proceeded by a forerunner (Is 40:3, Luke 1:17)
Messiah would be a light to the gentiles (Is 42:6, John 8:12)
Messiah would be despised by the Jewish nation (Is 49:7, John 10:20, Matt 27:23)
Messiah would be whipped and beaten (Is 50:6, Matt 26:67, 27:26)
Messiah would die as a guilt offering for sin (Is 53:10, John 18:11)
Messiah would be resurrected and live forever (Is 53:10, Mark 16:16)
Jeremiah & Lamentations: The Weeping Prophet / Jesus weptfor those who rejected His love

Messiah would be God (Jer 23:6, John 13:13)
Messiah would be a righteous Branch (Jer 23:5)
Messiah would be our righteousness (Jer 23:6, 1 Cor 1:30)
Ezekiel: The Son of ManMessiah would be a descendant of David (Ez 34:23-24, Matt 1:1)

Daniel: The Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven

Messiah would be ‘a son of man’ given an everlasting kingdom (Dan 7:13-14, Luke 1:31-34)
Messiah would come 483 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem (Dan 9:25, John 12:12-23)
Messiah would be killed (Dan 9:26, Matt 27:35)
Revealed as the ‘stone’ (and His kingdom) that smashes the kingdoms of the world (Dan 2:34,44)
Typified in the 4th man in the fiery furnace – one like ‘the son of gods’ (Dan 3:25)
Hosea: The BridegroomTypified in Hosea’s faithfulness to his adulterous wife (Hos 3)

Joel: The Baptizer With The Holy Spirit

Messiah will offer salvation to all mankind (Joel 2:32, Rom 10:12-13)
Messiah would baptize people with the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28-32)
Amos: The Burden Bearer

God would darken the day at noon during Messiah’s death (Amos 8:9, Matt 27:45-46)
Obadiah: The Mighty Savior

Jonah: Is a picture of Jesus being dead for three days, buried, then coming back to life to preach repentance.

Typified in Jonah being 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of a fish (Jon 1:17, Matt 12:40)
Micah: The Messenger With Beautiful Feet

Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Mic 5:2, Matt 2:1-2)
Messiah would be from everlasting (Mic 5:2, Rev:1-8)
Nahum : The Avenger of God’s Elect

Habakkuk: The Great Evangelist, Crying For Revival

Messiah would come from Teman at His return, full of glory (Hab 3:3)
Typified in the life of Habakkuk (his intercession and prayer for his people)
Zephaniah: The Restorer of the Remnant

Haggai: The Cleansing Fountain

Messiah would visit the 2nd temple (Hag 2:6-9, Luke 2:27-32)
Zechariah: The Pierced Son Messiah would be Priest and King (Zech 6:12-13, Heb 8:1)

Messiah would be ride into Jerusalem on a donkey (Zech 9:9, Matt 21:6-9)
Messiah would be God (Zech 11:12-13, John 12:45)
Messiah would be pierced (Zech 12:10, John 19:34-37)
Malachi: The Son of Righteousness

Messiah would appear at the temple (Mal 3:1, Mark 11:15-16)
Messiah’s forerunner would come in the spirit of Elijah (Mat 4:5, Matt 3:1-2)
New Testament

Matthew: The Messiah

The Son of David The Son of Abraham (Matt 1:1)
The King of the Jews (Matt 2:2)
The Son of God (Matt 2:15).
The Bridegroom (Matt 9:15)
Mark: The Miracle Worker

The Holy One of God (Mark 1:24)
The Servant (Mark 10:45)
The King of Israel (Mark 15:32)
Luke: The Son of ManThe Horn of Salvation (Luke 1:69)

The Consolation of Israel: (Luke 2:25).
John: The Son of God

God the Son (John 1:1-3, John 1:14)
The Only Begotten Son: (John 1:14,18)
The Lamb of God (John 1:29,36)
The Bread of life (John 6:35)
The Light of the World (John 8:1)
The I AM! (John 8:58)
The Door of the Sheep: (John 10:7,9)
The Good Shepherd (John 10:11)
The Resurrection and life (John 11:25)
The Way, the Truth, the Life (John 14:6)
The True Vine (John 15:1)
Acts: The Ascended Lord

The Prince of Life (Acts 3:15)
The Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42)
The Just One (Acts 7:52).
The Hope of Israel (Acts 28:20)
Romans: The Justifier

The Rock of Offense (Romans 9:33)
The Deliverer (Romans 11:26)
The Lord of the dead and the living (Romans 14:9)
The Root of Jesse (Romans 15:12)
1 & 2 Corinthians: The Last Adam

The First-fruits (1 Corinthians 15:23)
The Last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45)
Galatians: The One Who Sets Us Free

The Lord Jesus Christ (Gal 1:3)
Ephesians: The Christ of Riches

The Head over All Things (Ephesians 1:22)
The Cornerstone: (Ephesians 2:20)
Philippians: The God Who Meets Our Every Need

The Name above all names (Philippians 2:9)
Colossians: The Fullness of The Godhead

The Image of the Invisible God (Colossians 1:15)
The Head of the body (Colossians 1:18)
The Beginning (Colossians 1:18)
The Firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18)
The Hope of Glory (Col 1:27)
1 & 2 Thessalonians: The Soon Coming King

The Lord of Peace (2 Thessalonians 3:16)
1 & 2 Timothy: The One Mediator Between God And Man

The King of Ages (1 Timothy 1:17)
The Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5)
Titus : The Blessed Hope

The Blessed Hope (Titus 2:13)
Our Great God and Saviour (Titus 2:13)
Philemon: The Friend, Closer Than a Brother

The Lord Jesus Christ (Philemon 3)
Hebrews: The Blood That Washes Away My Sins

The Heir of All Things (Hebrews 1:2)
The Faithful High Priest (Hebrews 2:17)
The Author and Finisher of our Faith (Hebrews 12:2)
James: The Great Physician

The Lord of Glory (James 2:1)
The Judge at the door (James 5:9)
1 & 2 Peter: The Chief Shepherd

The Living Stone (1 Peter 2:4)
The Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4)
1 & 2 & 3 John: Everlasting Love

The Eternal Life (1 John 1:2)
The Righteous (1 John 2:1)
Jude: The God our Saviour

The Only Wise God our Saviour (Jude 25)
Revelation: The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

The Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Begining and the End: (Revelation 1:17, 22:13)
The Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Rev 5:5)
The Word of God (Revelation 19:13).
The King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16)
The Bright Morning Star (Revelation 22:16)
The entire Bible points us to Jesus our great God and Savior.

What you are about to read is true. It is exclusive to Christianity. You will not find this promise in any other religion.

The most utterly amazing, life changing truth you could ever know is this: God is a person (as opposed to an obscure power or an impersonal force,) and you can know Him.

Here is how to cultivate a relationship with God according to His Word, beginning in Deuteronomy 4:29,

“But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find {Him} if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”

Now consider Proverbs 2:1-5,

“My son, if you will receive my sayings, and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the LORD, and discover the knowledge of God.”

Now Matthew 7:7-8,

“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened.”

Now think about James 4:8,

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

And finally, in Revelation 3:20, God turns the table around and now He pursues you. These are the words of Jesus:

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me.”

The door that Jesus is referring to is the door of your heart. How do you open the door of your heart? In Matt. 4:17, the Bible says,

“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

What you believe is a matter of the heart as much as the mind. Repent means to change your mind about sin, turn around and go the other way. Stop ignoring God and living as if He did not exist. To do so, is the ultimate insult and rejection of His power, His glory, and His love.

How would you feel if you loved people so deeply that you were willing to die to save them, and they denied you even existed?

I’m not talking about living a life of guilt and remorse, I’m saying just the opposite. We all fall short every day. Asking forgiveness is not bondage; it’s liberating. Having a clear conscience is priceless. Developing and maintaining intimacy with God means keeping short accounts with Him and with people. Repentance is not a one-time event; it’s a lifestyle.

Asking for forgiveness from God and then forgiving those who have hurt you is one of the most freeing things you can do. In some cases, this may take time but, with God’s help, you can be free of all anger and unforgiveness.

Imagine what would happen to the economies of the world if we obeyed the bibles teaching of the 50-year jubilee and all debts were forgiven? Forgiveness is a beautiful thing—it’s ‘a God thing’.

Spiritually speaking, there is a direct correlation between how much truth you possess and the degree of freedom you enjoy. In John 8:32 Jesus said,

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

WHY WOULD ANYONE REJECT GOD?

#1 People love the world and the things of the world. That includes the passing “pleasure” of sin for a season. Sadly, many never take the time to think this through. Life is short and eternity is long. In 2 Cor. 4:17-18, speaking of this life, the bible says:

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

#2 The fear of man. Many people cannot bear the thought of identifying themselves with Jesus Christ and admitting they are sinners. “After all, what would my friends think? They might call me a religious fanatic or a “Jesus Freak.” This is why many people choose to ignore or deny God’s existence. But in Matthew 10, Jesus warned,

“Do not fear man who can only kill the body. But fear God who can not only kill your body but cast your soul into hell.”

Jesus also said,

“If you are ashamed of Me before men, I will be ashamed of you before My father in heaven. But if you acknowledge Me before men I will acknowledge you before My father in heaven.”

#3 The fear of death. Most people don’t want to think about death or sin or its consequences so they live like they’re never going to die. I remember asking a waitress, “I’d like to get your opinion on something.” She said, “I’m sorry, I don’t think.” And she walked away!

In 1 Cor. 15:55, the bible says,

“Death has no sting and the grave has no victory.”

For the Christian, death isn’t the end it’s the glorious beginning. One of the distinguishing marks of a genuine work of God’s Spirit in your life is simply this: sin will no longer be fun. You will want to obey the Lord because it’s a joy. Our obedience is not the obedience of a slave but of a child.

What Do I Do Now?

1. Pray. Talk to God as a child would speak to a loving father. This conversation is called prayer. There are many different kinds of prayer. In this case it’s a simple child-like, personal, private conversation with God.

Talking to God is one of the most normal, natural, sane, rational, intelligent and wonderful things a human being can do. You don’t even have to speak out loud. He knows your every thought. He wants to hear from and speak with you. He knows more about you then you do and He loves you.

You can start by meditating on the principles found in this model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13:

“Our Father who art in heaven, holy be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

Take time to think about the implications of each word and phrase in this prayer. It’s practically inexhaustible. The very first word speaks to one of our greatest needs—the need to be delivered from selfishness. Meditating on God’s Word is how spiritual truth is revealed to those who truly seek Him.

Contrary to popular opinion, as the first phrase in this prayer demonstrates, prayer is not primarily about getting God to give you everything you want. He already knows what you need. While God certainly does invite you to seek His grace and mercy, prayer is first and foremost about worship and thanksgiving. After all, He is the creator, the sustainer and the redeemer of mankind. Look up Revelation 5:8 and think about what prayer means to God. Also see Psalms 22:3.

2. Read the Bible. Prayer is how you talk to God, and reading the Bible is one way God talks to you. The better you know the Word of God the better you know the God of the Word. And the better you know His Word, the easier it is to discern His will. This is how you grow in your knowledge about Him and His will for your life.

Get a Bible. Read the central verse (John 3:16), remember what it says, then go to the beginning and start reading at Genesis 1:1. Keep reading it every day until the Bible begins to read you.

Genesis is fascinating and most of it is fairly easy to understand. As you read through, don’t worry about the parts you may not understand at first. It’s the parts you do understand that God will use to help you grow in knowledge and wisdom.

3. Make friends with other believers. The Bible calls this fellowship. Find a church that believes and teaches the Bible as the inerrant Word of God and where the worship is inspiring. Then get involved!

Many churches have small groups that meet in homes during the week. This is almost always a great place to meet new friends and grow in your faith. Most of them are very nice people who are interested in helping you grow closer to God.

I cannot overemphasize the value of walking with like-minded people who will help you on your pilgrimage to spiritual growth and eternal life. Proverbs 13:20 says,

“Walk with wise men and you will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.”

4. Learn how to share your faith. Find people who are involved in active ministry and go with him or her. Learn how to share your faith and then go out and do it. You’ll never regret it throughout all eternity (Daniel 12:3). Sharing God’s plan of salvation is the Great Commission to every Christian. Your marching orders are found in Matthew 28:19.

Leading someone to Christ is one of the most exciting things you could ever do. Our website has resources that will help you learn how to explain why we believe what we believe. Go to www.voice-wilderness.org.

For man to be satisfied (free from insignificance), he needs three things: Something to do, someone to love (and be loved by) and something to hope for. We realize all three of these in a personal love relationship with our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

YOU WERE CREATED BY GOD AND FOR GOD TO LOVE AND BE LOVED

I remember listening to a lecture by a Christian speaker on a college campus. After the message one student asked,

“How do I know I even exist?”

To which the speaker replied,

“Who should I say is asking?”

Everyone laughed.

When you know who created you, you find the purpose for which you were designed. You are the crowning achievement of God’s creation (He made you in His image and in His likeness). As such, you are the supreme object of His love and affection. That is why Jesus died for you. It’s not because you earned it; it’s because He loves you.

The bible is a book you study for a lifetime

The more you study the Bible, the more you grow spiritually. The more you grow spiritually, the closer you get to God. Paradoxically, the closer you get to Him, the farther away you realize you are and the closer you want to be. It’s a glorious journey.

“The older you get the more it takes to fill your heart with wonder and only God is big enough to fill it.” –R. Zacharias

I leave you with His promise from John 14:1-3,

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

H. W, H. Knott says of this great authority in Jurisprudence: “Ib the efforts of Story and Greenleaf is to be ascribed the rise of the Harvard Law School to its eminent position among the legal schools of the United States.!

Greenleaf produced a famous work entitled A treatise on the Law of Evidence which “is still considered the greatest single authority on evidence in the entire literature of legal procedure.”

In 1846, while still Professor of Law at Harvard, Greenleaf wrote a volume entitled An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice. In his classic work the author examines the value of the testimony of the apostles to the resurrection of Christ. The following are this brilliant jurist’s critical observations:

“The great truths which the apostles declared, were, that Christ had risen from the dead, and that only through repentance from sin, and faith in Him, could men hope for salvation. This doctrine they asserted with one voice, everywhere, not only under the greatest discouragements, but in the face of the most appalling errors that can be presented to the mind of man. Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public tribunal. His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world. The laws of every country were against the teachings of His disciples. The interests and passions of all the rulers and great men in the world were against them. The fashion of the world was against them.

“Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments, and cruel deaths. Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, rejoicing. As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage.

“They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted; and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most melancholy and terrific frequency. It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.

“If it were morally possible for them to have been deceived in this matter every human motive operated to lead them to discover and avow their error. To have persisted in so gross a falsehood, after it was known to them, was not only to encounter, for life, all the evils which man could inflict, from without, but to endure also the pangs of inward and conscious guilt; with no hope of future peace, no testimony of a good conscience, no expectation of honor or esteem among men, no hope of happiness in this life, or in the world to come.”

Principal Hill from Scotland:

“When you look at all the evidence of the resurrection “But, if not withstanding every appearance of truth, you suppose their testimony (the testimony of the Apostles) to be false, then, inexplicable circumstances of glaring absurdity crowd in upon you. You must suppose that 12 men of mean birth, of no education, living in that humble station which placed ambitious views out of their reach and far from their thoughts without any aid from the state, that they formed the noblest scheme which has ever entered into the mind of man, adopted a most daring means of executing that scheme and conducted it with such address as to conceal the imposture under the semblance of simplicity and virtue.

“You must further suppose that men guilty of blasphemy and falsehood united in an attempt the best contrived and which proved the most successful for making the world virtuous and that they formed this singular enterprise without seeking any advantage to themselves with an avowed contempt for loss and prophet and with the certain expectation of scorn and persecution and that although of one another’s villainy, none of them ever thought of providing for his own security by disclosing the fraud. But, that amidst sufferings the most grievous to flesh and blood to conceal their conspiracy they continued on until all of them had been killed with no one ever changing his story. Those that can swallow such suppositions have no title to complain about miracles.”

1. In Luke 11:1 we read, And it came about that while He was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

1. In Matthew Jesus warned us again vain repetition the way the heathens do.

a. Catholics pray the Rosary, the Muslims pray by rote 5 times a day, the Buddhists and the Hindu’s have the prayer wheel and the Vedas.

b. When you pray go secret closet. This speaks of your motives.

2. They could have asked for anything, why prayer?

a. They saw Jesus pray before He did His miracles.

b. Fed 5 k

c. Before raising Laz.

d. Before the cross.

3. They believed that prayer was the source of His power. And of course—it was!

2. The English translation contains only 68 words. You can recite it in about 20 seconds.

1. Protocol/ heart attitude

2. Right way/wrong way approach God.

a. Cain / Able

b. Queen Ester

3. One mediator between God and man.

3. Prayer is an act of faith that pleases God.

1. Heb. 11:6 Without faith impossible to please God.

2 . Rev. 5:8 God keeps bowls

4. Did not say, “teach us a prayer” teach us to pray

1. Jesus reveals the secret effectual prayer

2. Jas. Effectual, fervent prayer avails much.

5. The first word is, “Our.”

1. Not just a word – heart attitude.

2. Not “I” not “me” not “my” it’s “Our.”

3. This means caring about others!

4. Indictment against selfishness!

5. It’s a clarion call to adopt a heart of compassion, generosity, hospitality, and concern for others.

6. God wants us to learn to love to give.

7. An attribute God / John 3:16
8. Acts 20 / More blessed give / receive.

9. Good eye body light /Hebrew idiom

10. Selfishness / self centeredness / self-will essence of sin.

11. Lucifer – “I will exalt my self”

12. Jesus – “Not My will thy will be done.”

6. Our Father speaks of 3 things:

1. Father means origin.

a. He is our creator. He is the God of Genesis 1:1
b. I am the vine you are the branches. Apart from me you can do nothing.

2. Speaks of parental authority.

1. He is the father you are the child. If you love Me you will keep my commands.

2. His command is to love.

3. Father speaks of a personal love relationship.

1. God is knowable. Deut. 4:29
2. Not found in any other religion. Islam 99 names for God and father is not one of them.

3. University interviewed 600 converts from Islam to Christianity. The common thread that ran through their testimonies was the know-ability of God.

7. Christianity is not a religion it is a revelation.

1. The revelation leads to a personal love relationship with God!

2. You will not find this idea in any other religion, philosophy, or system of thought.

3. If God id your father than you are my brother/ family.

a. John 1:12 But as many as received Him (Jesus), to them He gave the right to become children of God, {even} to those who believe in His name.”

b. In John 8:44 Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You are of your father the devil.”

1. Those who do not belong to Christ cannot say, Our Father who art in heaven, they may say, ‘Our father who art in hell.’

8. Who Art in heaven.

Heaven is where we find the Central Intelligence Agency of the universe.
It is where the supreme commander has His throne—the seat of all power, wisdom, authority, dominion, and glory.
He is light and there is no darkness in Him. He dwells in unapproachable light.
Here the supreme commander rules and reigns with jurisdiction over every atom in the universe.
9. Holy be thy name

1. This speaks of worship.

John 4:23-24 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

2. This means by faith and according to Word-the Bible.

1. Ps. 22:3 God sits enthroned praises…

2. Revelation says, God keeps the prayers of the saints in bowls!

10. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The word “kingdom,” is basileia in Greek, it literally means to “rule” or “reign.”
The kingdom in this case is the rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ–the Captain of our Salvation.
But, the kingdom is in conflict. A battle has been raging for untold thousands of years between the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Peace.
In more than 55 countries (kingdoms) of the world, it is illegal punishable by death, dismemberment, or prison to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus knew very well that the world would be divided over His truth. In Mathew 10:34 Jesus said:
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
“They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.”
The future aspect of the kingdom of God is coming.

Rev 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there arose loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become {the kingdom} of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever.”

12. Give us this day our daily bread.

Why not be more economical and say, give us this year our annual portion? The idea is repeated in one sentence, this day—daily!
Remember when God provided manna in the wilderness?
Jesus, “Don’t worry about tomorrow.”
Because tomorrow belongs to God alone.
No man knows what a day may bring forth.
What would it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lost his soul?
Most people spend their lives trying to improve their civil conveniences. Trying to improve eat, wear, live.
Matt. 6:33, “Seek first kingdom of God….”
Ps 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom.
Most people cannot see past immediate/ live like never die.
In Matthew 6:19-21″Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy….”
How would you live if you lived everyday as if it were your last?
11. Forgive us trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Mark 11:25, “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions.

12. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The word translated “temp” here means to test or to prove. It means to test the strength or loyalty of something or someone.
Satan stood before God in Job 1:8
And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”
This prayer reveals our true relationship God.

Our father / We are God’s children.
Who art in heaven.. He is infinite, we are finite.
Holy be thy name … He is the object / we worship Him.
Thy kingdom come … He is the sovereign King / we are His subjects.
Thy will be done… Master / servant.
Give us this day; our daily bread … He is our provider.
Forgive us … He is our Savior.
Lead us not … He is our guide.
Deliver us evil… He is our protector
It also defines the heart attitude we must adopt.

Our= we are to be unselfish
Father we are family
Holy … a deep reverence/ not flippant.
lead us not … a desire for strength and conviction.
thine is the kingdom … hope and victory.
and the power … we are weak / then we are strong.
and the glory … We are to humble ourselves before Him.
GOD HATES HYPOCRISY

You cannot say “our” if you live only for yourself.
You cannot say “Father” if you do not endeavor each day to live like one of His children.
You cannot say “who art in heaven” if you are not laying up treasure there.
You cannot say “hallowed be thy name” if you have secret sin in your life.
You cannot say “thy Kingdom come” if you do not long for His appearing, and not doing your part inviting people to the marriage supper.
You cannot say “thy will be done” if you are not obeying His word.
You cannot say “on earth as it is in heaven” if I do not serve him here and now.
You cannot say “give us this day our daily bread” if you are dishonest or do not work.
You cannot say “forgive us our debts” if you do not forgive your brother.
You cannot say “lead us not into temptation” if you are standing in the path of sinners.
You cannot say “deliver us from evil” if make provision for the flesh, and fail to put on the whole armor of God.
You cannot say “thine is the kingdom” if you love the things of this world.
You cannot say thine is “the power” if you are self-sufficient.
You cannot say “thine is the glory” if you love the praise of men more than the praise that comes for the only God.
And, you cannot say “forever” if all you are living for is time.
Christians are the only one’s who have access to the throne of God

1. 1 Timothy 2:5 says: For there is one God, {and} one mediator also between God and men, {the} man Christ Jesus.

2. The privileges and responsibilities of this fact is sobering. In Luke 12:48.…

And from everyone who has been given much shall much be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.
“And I searched for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. “Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads,” declares the Lord GOD. Ezek0. 22:30- 31
“If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
The power in the Lord’s prayer is in understanding that prayer is more about God changing our minds and hearts than about us changing His!
For a comprehensive lesson on the Lord’s Prayer, go to the “Store” tab and check out our new book called, “The Power of Prayer and the Ministry of the Word—How To Turn Your World Upside Down.”

How Do We Know Hell Is Real?

I recently saw a huge billboard along a major expressway that read,

“Enjoy life now; there is no afterlife.”

It was sponsored by, The Foundation for Freedom from Religion. My first thoughts were, how could they possibly know that? On what authority can they make such a claim? The only way anyone could know for a fact whether or not there is life after death would be to die and then come back from the dead to tell us!

There is only one person in history who not only claimed He had the power to do that, but 2,000 years later, more than 2 billion people actually believe He did! The historical Jesus had such a profound impact on the world by what He said and by what He did, that the world marks time by His birth, death and resurrection. We live in the 21st century “A.D”. That is Latin for Anno Domini which means “In the year of the Lord”.

The reason we mark time by the birth and death of Jesus Christ is because three days after He was crucified He raised Himself from the dead! Unlike The Foundation for Freedom from Religion, Jesus speaks with authority when He speaks of the after-life. Jesus Christ is the most famous person in history. He said there is a real place called heaven and a real place called hell.

The doctrine of hell has to be the most difficult doctrine that has ever been presented to the mind of man. How can God be merciful and allow people to suffer in hell forever? To many, this appears to be an insurmountable contradiction for Christianity. Nevertheless, the Bible has dozens of references to hell. Having a finite mind and a limited understanding of the mysteries of God, I admit that hell does seem unfair, but by the same token, heaven is equally unfair.

Ten things you may have never considered about hell

1. God Is Perfectly Fair And Just

Allow me to illustrate. In 1997 a 9-year-old girl was brutally raped in a partially abandoned housing project in Chicago. Relatives said, she liked to play, go roller skating and tutor other students. The little girl was lured into an apartment where she was gang raped. Roach killer was sprayed down her throat and she was eventually left for dead in a filthy stairwell. When they found her she was shaking and foaming at the mouth. She remained in a coma for a month. Today, years later, she is confined to a wheelchair and still unable to speak.

Does that story bother you? How would you feel if this happened to someone you loved deeply? How do you think God feels when something like this happens? Do you think the man who did that should be punished?

God feels the same way when people lie, steal, cheat, rob, rape, and murder. He hates all sin and must punish every form of rebellion because He is perfectly just. If He did not, He would be unjust.

The Bible teaches that there will be different levels of punishment in hell, and different levels of reward in heaven. In Matthew 11:20 Jesus said:

Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

And this from Luke 12:47-48:

“And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, shall receive many lashes, but the one who did not know {it,} and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. And from everyone who has been given much shall much be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”

“Hell Wll Be A Place Of Fair Treatment. Before Anyone Goes There, He Will Stand At A Final Judgment To Determine The Exact Degree Of Punishment He Will Receive. God Will Be Perfectly Fair.”

“The final judgment is depicted graphically in Revelation 20:11-15. This is the great white throne judgment. The Judge is none other than Jesus Christ (John 5:24-30). All the unsaved receive new bodies and will stand to be judged. Then the books containing the life record of every person and “The book of life” will be opened. The opening of these books shows that those who rejected God’s gift of salvation will receive perfect justice.

“In Romans 2:1-16, Paul pointed out that God will look at what people have done with their privileges and opportunities, and that He will be completely impartial and fair (vv.5-1 1). Those who possessed His Word, the law of verses 12-14, will be held accountable for their response to it. Those who never received special revelation will be held accountable only for what they knew (vv. 14-16).”

“No judge or jury fully understands the person on trial. No human being can evaluate the exact degree of accountability in himself or anyone else. We are all profoundly influenced by hereditary and environmental factors beyond our control. Yet we make choices after weighing options. Therefore, we are all accountable-at least to some degree. And God understands to what extent. He also knows how much we need His mercy.”

“When the young man who died in a gang war stands before Jesus Christ, he will find that the Lord understands all the circumstances of his short, violent, and troubled life his absent father, his immoral Mother, his disadvantaged peers, his complete ignorance of the gospel message, and his despair. The Lord Jesus will take all these factors into consideration. He knows exactly the degree of responsibility of this young man and will give him a sentence that perfectly suits his offense.”

“The rich, respectable landlord who died without Christ may receive a far more severe sentence than most of his tenants, even those who had many brushes with the law. The Lord Jesus will take into account their respective privileges. He will see perfectly the underlying greed, selfishness, and pride of this man. He will understand the sense of despair that was a factor in some of the wrongs done by the tenants. All will receive fair treatment. God, the holy moral Governor of the universe, will dispense perfect justice to all wrongdoers.”

“The awesome picture of final judgment in Revelation 20:11-15 led Thomas Carlyle to exclaim: “What a magnificent conception is that of  a final judgment! A righting of all the wrongs of the ages.” The Lord Jesus Christ will take into account every circumstance, overlooking nothing. He will be the Supreme Court of the universe. No one will be able to appeal His decisions. In fact, no one will feel the need to do so. Every person will acknowledge Him as Lord and admit that His verdict has been absolutely fair and right. It is at this time that everyone will recognize Him to be all He claimed to be, fulfilling the words of Philippians 2:9-11.”

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

2. It Is Not God’s Will For Anyone To Go To Hell

The Apostles and the Prophets affirm the greatness of God’s grace conferred on all mankind again and again in the Scriptures. For examples:

John 3:16-17 proclaims that: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”

Ezek. 33:11 says, “Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.”

Matthew 25:41 tells us that hell was not made for man but for the devil and his angels.

2 Peter 3:9 says: “The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

1 Timothy 2:3-4: “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

John 1:29: “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

There are dozens more of these verses that make it abundantly clear that God would rather have people repent and believe the Gospel.

3. God Did Not Reject Us; We Rejected Him!

C.S. Lewis put it this way: “Sin is man saying to God throughout his life, ‘Go away and leave me alone.’ Hell is simply God saying to man, ‘You may have your wish.’”

Here is what the Bible says:

Isaiah 30:15: “For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, ‘In repentance and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust is your strength.’ But you were not willing.”

Matthew 10:32-33: “Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 23:37: “O Jerusalem,Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”

Romans 2:4-6 says: “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds.”

It was our sins that nailed Christ to the cross, but it wasn’t the nails that held Him there; it was His love for you and me! To reject so great a salvation is to condemnyourself.

4. To Preserve Freedom And Defeat Evil

“The fact that humans used God-given free choice to disobey God did not take God by surprise. C. S. Lewis suggested that God, in His omniscience saw that from a world of free creatures, even though they fell, He could work out ‘…a deeper happiness and a fuller splendor than any world of automata would admit.’ Or, as Geisler has put it so well, the theist does not have to claim that our present world is the best of all possible worlds, but it is the best way to the best possible world:

“If God is to both preserve freedom and defeat evil, then this is the best way to do it. Freedom is preserved in that each person makes his own free choice to determine his destiny. Evil is overcome in that, once those who reject God are separated from the others, the decisions of all are made permanent.

“Those who choose God will be confirmed in it, and sin will cease. Those who reject God are in eternal quarantine and cannot upset the perfect world that has come about. The ultimate goal of a perfect world with free creatures will have been achieved, but the way to get there requires that those who abuse their freedom be cast out.

“A critically important factor involved in the suggestion that this may not be the best possible world, but it is the best way to the best possible world, is that God is not finished yet. Too often people fall into the trap of thinking that because God hasn’t dealt with evil yet, He is not dealing with it at all. Walter Martin used to say, ‘I’ve read the last chapter in the book, and we win!’ Evil will one day be done away with. Just because evil is not destroyed right now does not mean it never will be.

“In view of the above facts, the existence of evil in the world is seen to be compatible with the existence of an all-good and all-powerful God. We can summarize the facts this way:

If God is all-good, He will defeat evil.

If God is all-powerful, He can defeat evil.

Evil is not yet defeated.

Therefore, God can and will one day defeat evil.

“One day in the future, Christ will return, strip away power from the wicked, and hold all men and women accountable for the things they did during their time on earth (see Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 20:11-15), and justice will ultimately prevail. Those who enter eternity without having trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation will understand just how effectively God has dealt with the problem of evil.” ¹

5. God Has The Right And The Responsibility To Punish Evil

As Creator of the universe, God has the responsibility to punish evil. He has provided the way of escape by our believing, trusting, and relying upon Jesus for salvation, but many refuse His gift and reject His Son.

God created the universe from nothing. But God created man in His own image and likeness, therefore, He expects man to seek Him with all of his heart. As His Word says, “From him to whom much is given, much will be required.”

God gave man everything he needed to make an intelligent decision about God and eternity. He wrote the moral law on every man’s heart and gave him a conscience. Man has the ability to discern good from evil. Hebrews 4:13 says we are accountable to God for our moral choices.

God is not like us. He is perfect. As high as the heavens are above the earth, His ways are above our ways. God dwells in unapproachable light. He is light and there is no darkness in Him. Nothing impure or unclean can stand in His presence. He is perfectly holy. If God did not punish the unrepentant sinner, He Himself would be unjust. If God, were to overlook even one transgression, He would deny Himself. That He cannot do.

6. We Murdered The Son Of God

I’m not so amazed that Jesus raised Himself from the dead. I’m more amazed that He could have died in the first place! Death is the result of sin. That is why all men die, no matter how they die. But Jesus was sinless. How could Christ have died? The answer is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin {to be} sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

The horrible truth that many people want to avoid is that no one is innocent of the blood of Jesus. The Bible clearly states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Bible also says, “He (Jesus) was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6, NIV).

In Acts 3, after being filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter preached a sermon and 3,000 people were saved! Three times in that sermon, Peter told his listeners that they murdered the Son of God! This is also what Peter preached in Acts chapters 3, 4, and 5, as well as in 1 Peter 2:24.

In our fallen world and in a corrupt legal system, it’s one thing to murder a skid-row bum; it is another thing altogether to murder the President of the United States. If you murder a ‘nobody’ it is possible, if you have enough money and a ‘good’ lawyer, to ‘beat the rap’ on a technicality. But, if you murder the President of  United States, you can be sure that the United States government will bring all of its legal and political power against you in order to insure that you receive the maximum penalty allowed by law. In this case, it was sin, yours, mine, and ours that made it necessary for Jesus to die on the cross. Those who refuse to seek God’s forgiveness show no remorse for what they have done.

If you die without Christ as your Savior, when you stand before the Great White Throne of God you will be charged with murdering the Son of God and the penalty is death. Simply stated, because you killed God’s Son and show no repentance or remorse, God is going to kill you! That is the point of Luke 20:9-16.

7. High Treason Is Punishable By Death

Even in man’s world, high treason in a time of war has always been punishable by death. For man to exalt his own will above the will of God is an attempt to usurp the throne of God. That is how the archangel Lucifer became the arch-enemy of God and why his name was changed to Satan. The first sin in the universe occurred when Lucifer decided (of his own free will) to say, “I will exalt myself above the throne of God.” Lucifer’s sin was the pride of covetousness, which is idolatry, an abomination to God. All sin is unbelief. When a person lives his or her life as if God does not exist, God calls it willful rebellion.

8. God Gave Man A Free Will

One of the worst things about being in hell will be the realization that you did not have to go there.

Genesis tells us that, “God made man in His image and in His likeness.” You are not, never have been, and never will be a robot. God created you as a free-thinking moral agent. You were also designed with a built-in conscience. This means you have the capacity to discern good from evil and to say, ‘I should’, or, ‘I should not.’” That makes you accountable for your actions.

God is sovereign, and in His sovereignty He created man with a free will. How else could our love for God be genuine? This illustration may help connect the dots. Imagine you are playing chess against the world champion chess player. In this case, it would not matter how you move the pieces, he is so much better at the game that you are that he would use your moves to win the game! The same principle applies with the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. In the game of life, it does not matter how you move the pieces, it does not matter how Satan moves the pieces; you can move them any way you want to, and God will use those moves to accomplish His sovereign will without ever violating yours! He’s that good.

9. If Punishment Ended, At That Point It Would Be As If There Were No Punishment At All 

Allow me to illustrate with the true story of the Lockerbie Bomber:

On Wednesday, 21 December 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 was on a transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.  The aircraft, a Boeing 747 was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members. Also killed were eleven other people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland.  Large sections of the plane fell from the sky destroying several houses, bringing the total number of dead to 270. This event is known today as the Lockerbie Bombing.

The entire front section of the aircraft, containing the flight deck with crew and the first class section, broke away completely. Flying upwards it struck the number 3engine as it snapped off. With the steering cables disabled, the aircraft began to descend sharply. As the fuselage disintegrated, the cabin lost pressure, making it almost impossible for the passengers to breath. The sudden change in air pressure, caused their lungs to swell and then collapse. The explosion knocked out the power, plunging the passenger cabin into darkness. When the cockpit broke off, the fuselage was now an open cylinder. Tornado-force winds tore up the aisles, slamming into people’s  chests, making it extremely difficult to breathe, and stripping the clothes off the passengers. Some were thrown to the rear of the plane. People and objects were blown out of the aircraft into the night at temperatures of -46 °C (-51 °F). Their 31,000-foot fall lasted approximately two minutes before they hit the ground.

Many passengers were still attached to the fuselage by their seat belts, crashing to earth while still strapped to their seats. Although the passengers would have lost consciousness through lack of oxygen, forensic examiners believe some of them might have regained consciousness as they fell toward oxygen-rich lower altitudes.

Dr. William G. Eckert, who examined the autopsy evidence, told Scottish police that the crew and 147 passengers may have survived the bomb blast and due to the depressurization of the aircraft, were still alive on impact. On the ground, 11 Lockerbie residents were killed when the wing section hit the ground at more than 500 mph, exploding on impact. It left a crater 154 feet long. It vaporized several houses completely destroying the foundations. It rendered 21 so badly damaged they had to be demolished. Four members of one family were killed by the explosion as their home was engulfed in a fireball of flames.

For many families, there was nothing left of the bodies to bury. They were vaporized by the explosion. For days, Lockerbie residents had to live with the horrifying sight of dead bodies strewn across their yards and streets. The authorities had to document the location of each body in an attempt to help determine the force of the explosion on-board the air craft. One resident commented, “A boy was lying at the bottom of the steps on to the road. A young laddie with brown socks and blue trousers on. Later that evening my son-in-law asked for a blanket to cover him. I didn’t know he was dead. I gave him a lamb’s wool travelling rug thinking I’d keep him warm. Two more girls were lying dead across the road, one of them bent over garden railings. It was just as though they were sleeping. The boy lay at the bottom of my stairs for days. Every time I came back to my house for clothes he was still there. ‘My boy is still there,’ I used to tell the waiting policeman. Eventually on Saturday I couldn’t take it anymore. ‘You’ve got to get my boy lifted,’ I told the policeman. That night he was moved.”

On August 20, 2009, 11 years later, the British government released Abdel baset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber. At the time of his release, there was no more punishment, no more suffering, and no more prison time for the man who murdered hundreds of innocent people. At that point it’s as if the man responsible for this monstrous act had done nothing wrong. He was completely free. He returned to Libya where he received a hero’s welcome. Does that bother you? What if one of your loved one’s was on that plane? Would you want that man to be set free to receive a hero’s welcome?

So what does this have to do with hell being eternal? Everything. Keep reading!

“Hell must be eternal, because what matters most to man is his present condition. Let me illustrate: suppose you live in a frigid area of the world and you had heat for the last 10 years. But suppose this year catastrophe struck and left you without any heat in the dead of winter, freezing and shivering. Will the fact that you hadheat for the last 10 years make you happy while you freeze this winter? No. What matters most is that you don’t have heat this winter. It’s true to say that what matters most to you is your present condition. Likewise, suppose that you lived without heat for the last 10 years, but you finally got it this year. Will the fact that you lived without heat for the last 10 years make you unhappy while you sit comfortably and warm now? No. The thing that matters most is your present condition. The same truth applies to all of the pleasure or pain we experience now.

“We must note that no temporal pleasures bring true and lasting happiness. Man was created for God and can only be satisfied in Him. This principle also holds true when we consider the following issues as well.

“What matters most to the unspiritual man is his present physical condition. For example, those who enjoy great fame, or great wealth, or great success, or great beauty, are not troubled by the fact that they did not possess this 10 or 20 years ago. What matters most to them is that they are great, or famous, or successful or wealthy, or beautiful—now!

“Therefore, if the pains of hell end at some point, then at that point man is free from punishment. He would suffer no pain at all and since his present condition is all that matters to him, the end result for that man would be that he would not suffer punishment at all.

“Thus it is true to say that a punishment that is not eternal is in the end actually not real punishment at all. For if it ends at any point, then, the final condition of that man is that he is free from suffering. All he knows and cares about then is that he is free from punishment.

“But as Deuteronomy 32:35 says, ‘Vengeance is Mine and I will repay them in due time.’” Such a punishment can be real only if the end result equals punishment not a state of non-punishment. The only way that the punishment can have an end result which equals punishment rather than non-punishment, is by an ongoing present condition of unhappiness. That is why hell must be and is eternal.” ²

 10. The Real Question Isn’t Why But Who?

He is God. We are not. Where were you when He laid the foundations of the Earth?

If God Is Good Why Is There Evil?

Here is just one spectacular example from the Ten Commandments

The very first institution ordained by God in the Bible was marriage. And, that is defined by our Creator as a sacred relationship between one man and one woman. In Genesis 2:24 God said,

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Then, in Genesis 39:9 (500 years before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments), we find Joseph resisting the advances of his boss’s wife by saying,

“There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

How could Joseph have such a deep conviction about sexual immorality 500 years before Mt. Sinai? Romans 2:15 provides the answer, “The law is written on every man’s heart.”

Then in Exodus 20:14, the seventh of the Ten Commandments is,

“You shall not commit adultery.”

When God gave Moses the 10 commandments (1,500 B.C.) pagan religions celebrated sexual immorality as a form of worship to their gods. The Canaanites and the Babylonians worshiped Baal, which included temple prostitution. The Greeks and Romans also had their own forms of “sanctified prostitution.”

The doctrine of marital fidelity is a foreign concept to all man-made religions. The Judeo-Christian worldview alone teaches that human sexuality is sacred. It is sacred (holy) because it began in the mind of God.

Islam teaches that a man can have 4 wives and numerous concubines. Mohammed, the founder of Islam had 11 wives. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism had 33 wives.

“Nature” itself teaches that the doctrine of polygamy cannot be divinely inspired since the ratio of men to women in the world is 1 to 1. If there were 10 women to every man in the world this doctrine might not be so obviously false.

Hinduism. In India, the devadasi (day-vah-dah-see) system is the Hindu practice of temple prostitution. The practice of “dedicating” girls to Hindu gods has existed for more than 5,000 years.  Children taken from a lower social status (called a “lower caste”) are forced (by social and economic pressure) to begin a life of prostitution at age 11 or 12.

Women are told that this “service to the Gods” is a “holy duty” they must fulfill. Ironically, high caste Hindu priests will never eat from or even touch the cup or bowl of a lower caste Hindu, but they will have sexual intercourse with them!

Buddhism has no explicit sexual code. Having no code, by default, is a code. Many Buddhist monks have expressed the opinion that engaging in prostitution purely for helping others can be a source of karmic merit.  One of the “helps” they provide is by making offerings and gifts to Buddhist temples. That is one reason the Buddhist hierarchy is silent on prostitution, and one reason many temples are so lavish.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 says, “There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.”

Matt 5:27-29 says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery. ‘But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

As you can see, this teaching clearly transends all man-made religions.  Faithfulness to one’s marital partner in thought, word, and deed is exclusive to the Judeo-Christian worldview!

In all man-made religions women are considered to be of lesser value than men, and are treated as commodities. Only the Judeo-Christian worldview teaches that men and women are created in the image of God and are of equal value.

God’s moral law as contained in the 10 Commandments, clearly separates Christianity from man-made religions because it represents a moral code that transends anything known to man.

So much for the lie that all religions are basically the same.

Shop, Compare And Save

Buddha said, “I am a teacher in search of truth.”

Jesus said, “I Am the truth.”

Confucius said, “I never claimed to be holy.”

Jesus said, “Which one of you convicts Me of sin?”

Speaking of the afterlife, Mohammed said, “I do not know what Allah will do to me.”

Jesus said, “I Am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me. though he die, yet shall he live.”

None of these other men ever claimed to be God. They all said God is this way, go this way.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father but by Me.”

The study of Israel’s past, present, and future in light of Bible prophecy is one of the most fascinating (and spiritually enriching) studies imaginable.

In the Bible God says in essence; if you want to see My hand, if you want to know where we are on the prophetic time-clock, take a good look at the Middle East in the light of My Word.

“The highest science, the loftiest speculation…which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of God.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            –Charles Spurgeon

Our story begins in Genesis 12. The Abrahamic Covenant 

It’s 2,000 B.C. when God calls Abraham to separate himself from his family, his country and his pagan roots.  God has chosen Abraham and his future descendents to begin a new nation. They would be called a “Chosen nation” because they were chosen for a mission. They would be entrusted and empowered to bring God’s plan of redemption (and His Redeemer)  to a world—lost without Him.

Here is the word of God to Abraham from Genesis 12:1-3, “Now the Lord had said to Abram:

Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The promises fall into 3 categories: Personal, national, universal. The Abrahamic covenant included the promise of:

• A great nation
• A great name
• Special favor
• All other nations would be blessed through one of Abraham’s descendants.

Did these 4,000 year old promises come true? Let’s consider them one at a time:

1. Did Abraham become a great nation?

Nation indeed! Abraham was 100 and his 90-year-old wife, Sarah, was barren when this promise was given. That is why Isaac is called, “The son of promise.” The nation began with a miracle! This “typified” the virgin birth of Jesus.

Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons who became the 12 Tribes of the nation of Israel. Five hundred years later, Abraham’s descendants were 2-3 million strong.

They marched out of Egypt, and out of slavery without a shot being fired. Egypt was the most powerful nation on Earth!

In 1,500 B.C. God gives Moses the Ten Commandments–the greatest moral code known to man.

By 1,000 B.C. the Jewish monarchy had become a world power under Kings Saul, David, and Solomon.

David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel, and Solomon built the most magnificent (and expensive) temple in history.

So much gold and silver was used in its construction; if it were built today its estimated cost is 150 billion dollars!

To put that in perspective, the tallest skyscrapers in the world today cost about $1.5 billion dollars to build.

Today, Israel has the highest per capita income and the highest standard of living in the Middle East.

Jews comprise less than 0.2% of the world’s population, yet they are number two in the world with new technology start-up firms.

And, of the just over 800 individuals who have been awarded the Nobel Prize, more than 20% are Jews!

• The Nobel Prize is an international prize awarded annually for achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology and literature.

Albert Einstein is still considered the most brilliant physicist in the history of science. His Theory of Relativity contributed to the discovery of atomic power.

Israel leads the world in advanced technology and the IDF is one of the most capable militaries in the world.

Each of their military victories since 1948 has been nothing short of miraculous.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Does that qualify as a great nation?

However, the complete fulfillment of the promise to Israel of becoming a great nation is still ongoing. Remember, the promise is to Abraham and his descendants. Israel’s best days are still ahead of her.

2. Was Abraham’s name made great?

Virtually all the empires of the ancient world were polytheists. They worshipped many gods usually in the form of idols. The first great world power was:  Egypt, then Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and the Romans—they were all pagans.

It was Abraham and his descendants were the first to proclaim the doctrine that so profoundly impacted our world—the astounding legacy of monotheism—one God!

How did the Israelites alone, surrounded by paganism come up with such a radical idea? Abraham did not create one God, the one God created (and revealed Himself) to Abraham!

And all three of the world’s great monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; 3.5 billion people) claim that Abraham is the founding father of their religion.

Would you say that qualifies as a great name?

3. How have all the families of the Earth been blessed?

Israel is the birthplace of the Word of God—written and living (the Bible and Jesus Christ). The prophets and the apostles were Jews. Jesus was Jewish.

There is no possible term of comparison between the Bible and Jesus Christ and any other religious leader or so-called “holy book” in the history of the world.

• The Bible is the run-away best seller of all time
• Jesus Christ is the most famous person who ever lived
• Christianity is the largest religion in the world

The Bible is read by more people and published in more languages than any other book. Wycliffe Bible translators are now saying that by 2020 they will have portions of the Bible in every language!

HOW WAS THE WHOLE WORLD BLESSED BY JESUS?

In Leviticus 1-17, God instructed Moses to begin the sacrificial system in order to atone for sin. God’s word says,

The life is in the blood and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

Since the penalty for sin is death (all men die because all men sin), in order for a savior to save you, he would have to be sinless and die for you. That is precisely what Jesus did. If you come to God without a blood sacrifice, your own life is required!

• The sacrificial system provided the world with 1,500 years of literal, historical, and theological context, so when Jesus died on the cross, this would all make sense.
• This is how God can legally forgive sin without compromising His justice. Justice and mercy were reconciled when Jesus paid our sin debt for us.
• That is why when John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
• Jesus Christ satisfied God’s perfect justice once and for all the families of the Earth!

Would you say that qualifies as a blessing to all the nations?

A careful reading of Deut. 28 & Lev. 26 reveals that God told the Israelites, if they would trust and obey Him, He would exalt them above all the other nations.

But if they failed to trust and obey, just the opposite would happen. History verifies that the Bible is correct in pre-writing Israel’s history to the smallest detail.

It is important to realize that the promises were to Abraham and to his descendants. That means that the promises are still in the process of being fulfilled!

As mentioned the Jewish Monarchy became a world power under kings Saul, David, and Solomon.

Solomon’s death in 926 marked the end of the united monarchy. They forgot about God and look what happened.

The Kingdom was divided into Israel and Judah. Israel (the Northern Kingdom) lasted 240 years.

The Assyrian Empire

In 720 B.C. the Northern Kingdom of Israel was crushed by the Assyrian Empire. They forced 10 of the 12 Tribes into exile.

The Babylonian Empire

In 586 B.C. Judah (the Southern Kingdom) was conquered by the Babylonian Empire. King Nebuchadnezzar totally destroyed the Temple and the Jews were exiled to Babylon. Israel and Judah were now under foreign control.

Israel would not be under Jewish control as a nation again until 1948 A.D. (2,362 years later).

The Persian Empire

In 538 B.C. (48 years later), Cyrus the Great / King of Persia conquered the Babylonians.

Daniel spoke of the” Prince of Persia” who did battle with Michael the Arc Angel for 21 days. Persia is Modern Day Iran.

The rebuilding of the Temple was authorized by Cyrus in 538 B.C.

Alexander the Great

In 333 Alexander the Great conquered the world for Greece. In a last-minute decision, he allowed the rebuilt Temple to stand.

After Alexander died, the kingdom was divided into four territories.

This was prophesied in spectacular detail 200 years before Alexander was born in Daniel Chapter 11.

In 168 B.C., Antiochus Epiphanies, a Syrian king who wanted to Hellenize the world, took control of Israel and banned all Jewish religious practices.

He occupied Jerusalem, entered Holy of Holies and desecrated the Temple by slaughtering a pig on the Temple altar.

The Roman Empire

In 64 B.C. the Roman General, Pompey conquered Judea.

Rome began its domination of the Jews and Judea which lasted nearly 500 years.

Rome was steeped in paganism. They attributed their success as a world power to the gods.  They had 12 major gods and numerous minor gods.

The world divides time before and after Jesus Christ.

Gal, 4:4, But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman.

The very first verse in the New Testament is fascinating. In Matt. 1:1 we read,

This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.

This verse tells us two things:

1. The Bible is one book:

• Who are David and Abraham? You’ll have to go back to Genesis to find that out!

2. God always keeps His promises:

• The promise was that one of Abraham’s descendents would be a blessing to the whole world.
• The promise to David was that one of his descendants would rule and reign from his throne in Jerusalem forever! Jesus is that person and when He returns that is exactly what He is going to do.

Matthew 1:1 is saying that the promises that go back 2,000 years begin now!

In 70 A.D., General Titus (later to become Emperor Titus), destroyed Jerusalem. He left 1 million dead and the surviving Jews ran for their lives to the four corners of the Earth.

The 1,000 year old Temple was destroyed. Not one stone was left upon another precisely as Jesus prophesied.

The Roman Empire ruled the world with an iron fist.

In 330 Emperor Constantine believing Jesus could help him win his battles, decriminalized Christianity. He developed his own version which became the official state religion of Rome.

He mixed the pagan practices of Rome with Christianity and the Roman Empire became the “Holy Roman Empire” which we know today as the Holy Roman Catholic (Universal) “church.”

That was the Genesis of Roman Catholicism!

The Arch of Titus stands in Italy to this day as a memorial to Titus and the destruction of Jerusalem. Italy is bankrupt and Israel is thriving.

The Roman Empire ruled the world with an iron fist. They won all their arguments by killing their enemies. At the Roman Coliseum, Christians were fed to the lions.

Providentially, there are more Christians alive at this moment than the total number of people who made up the Roman Empire, over its entire 500 year history, and the lions and the tigers are on the endangered species list!

The Byzantine Empire

Constantine transferred the main capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium. He changed the name to Constantinople (“City of Constantine”) which we know today as Istanbul.

In 1054 there was a dispute between Rome and Constantinople over the worship of icons.

Rome continued its practice of Catholicism and the Byzantines practiced their version of what we know today as the Eastern Orthodox or Greek Orthodox Church.

The Muslims

In 638 Muslims took Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock was built, in 691 A.D.

Many scholars believe that this Mosque sits on the very spot where Solomon’s Temple was originally constructed.

The Crusades

In 1095 Pope Urban II sanctioned a military force called, “The Crusaders” It lasted from 1095–1291.

The Crusades were originally designed to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims.

The Crusaders were promised an indulgence from the Pope if they would fight for Rome. The promise was they would receive forgiveness for past sins, guaranteeing them a place in heaven.

Unfortunately for those who fought, they were not aware that only God has that authority.

During the Crusades, not only Muslims, but Jews and Christians were robbed, raped, massacred and sold into slavery.

The Crusades spread as Rome sought to rid Europe of “ecclesiastical heretics.”

An “ecclesiastical heretic” in this case was anyone who refused to convert to Roman Catholicism. The Crusades lasted almost 300 years!

Following the Crusades, there was widespread expulsions of Jews in Europe, beginning in England in 1290.

Then in by France in 1306.

Then it was the Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century. It is uncertain how many were killed in the name of “Jesus.”

Rest assured the Crusaders were not following the Jesus of the Bible. He said, “Love your enemies.”  

The Turks

In 1453 Constantinople fell to the Ottomans (the Turkish Empire). The Ottoman’s were Muslims.

The British

In 1917 the British defeated the Turks in World War I and took control of Israel. The Brits promised they would help the Jews back into their ancient homeland but broke their promises under pressure from the Arabs and their oil.

God’s promise to Abraham is still being fulfilled.

I will bless those who bless thee and I will curse those who curse thee.

After WWI the British Empire controlled a quarter of the world. Today, England is bankrupt morally, spiritually, and financially and being overrun by Muslims!

The Nazis

In 1939 Satan handed the baton to Adolph Hitler.  Germany invaded Poland and that was the beginning of WWII.

Hitler convinced Germany that the final solution to the world’s problems was the extermination of the Jews.

Adolph Hitler was directly responsible for the murder of 11 million people. Of those 11 million, 6 million were Jews. Their only crime was; they were Jewish!

In April 1945 Hitler committed suicide. On May 8th Germany surrendered, but not before 59 million people were dead!

Three Years Later—Israel is Born Again

From 1945–1947 there was a Jewish uprising against British rule. The State of Israel was established on May 14, 1948 after nearly two thousand years of Jewish dispersal.

More than 2,500 years earlier, Ezek. 36:23-24 said,

And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst.

Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight”.

For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land.

The Next Day Israel was Attacked by the Arabs

On May 15th one day after Israel declared its independence five Arab countries—Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq — attack Israel, launching the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Israel has suffered 5 full-blown attacks by her Arab neighbors since 1948 and each time, although vastly outnumbered, Israel  routed her enemies with stunning victories. And each time Israel captured more of the land that God promised her.

Even though Israel was a Jewish nation once again, she still did not have control of the heart of her nation—the ancient city of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Back in Jewish Hands

In 1967 in the Six Day War, the Israelis captured the ancient city of Jerusalem from Jordan.

In Luke 21:24, 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, by Rome Jesus said,

And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Jerusalem is now back in Jewish hands for the first time 2,000 years. But there is one piece of real estate inside the city of Jerusalem still in dispute.

Israel still does not have control over the most sacred site on Earth. The Temple Mount (where the Mosque of Omar stands) is still under Arab control.

WHY IS ISRAEL THE MOST DISPUTED PIECE OF REAL ESTATE ON PLANET EARTH?

Here is the truth about who the land really belongs to.  In Genesis 17:17-22God’s word says,

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.”

And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”

According to the Bible, God promised the land to Abraham, to his “son of promise,” Isaac, and to their descendants.

Almost 2,600 years later, Mohammed came along and claimed that Ishmael (not Isaac) is the rightful heir, and therefore the land belongs to the Arabs!

“That is why Muslims are determined to destroy Israel and take land.

“If Israel prevails (or even exists), Muslims will be forced to admit that Allah is not the true God, Mohammed was not a prophet, and the Koran is false.” –Dave Hunt

THE REAL BATTLE IS NOT AGAINST JEWS AND ARABS. GOD LOVES THEM BOTH. THE REAL BATTLE IS BETWEEN THE FORCES OF DARKNESS AND THE PRINCE OF PEACE

IF SATAN COULD HAVE DESTROYED THE JEWS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT THE SAVIOR COULD NOT HAVE COME THE FIRST TIME

IF SATAN CAN DESTROY ISRAEL NOW, THE PROPHECY OF JESUS RETURNING TO RULE FROM THE THRONE OF DAVID CANNOT BE FULFILLED!

Jerusalem must be in Jewish hands for this prophecy to be fulfilled. This is clearly spelled out in both the Old and New Testaments.

In Isaiah 59:19-20 we read,

When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. “The Redeemer will come to Zion, And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” Says the Lord.

And in Luke 1:31-33,

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.

And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.

And in Zech. 14:1-4,

Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east.

Today there are 350 million Arabs surrounding 6 million Jews and they cannot defeat tiny little Israel! Why do you suppose that is? As usual, God’s Word has the answer.

The Bible says you’d have a better chance of changing the course of the sun, moon and stars then from ever removing the Jews from the land!

In Jer. 31:35-37 the word of God says,

Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the LORD of hosts is His name:

If this fixed order departs from before me,” declares the LORD, “Then the offspring of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.”

Thus says the LORD, “If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” declares the LORD.”

WAS THE BIBLE RIGHT ABOUT THE ISHMAELITES?

In Genesis 16:11-12 we read,

And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress.

This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey!

He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.

As of this writing, most of the Middle East is completely up for grabs. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, these countries that surround Israel are engulfed in civil war (which is anything but civil).

Here’s how the ASV translated Gen. 16:11-12,

And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son. And thou shalt call his name Ishmael, because God hath heard thy affliction.

And he shall be a wild ass among men. His hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell over against all his brethren.

Is Genesis 16 correct? What do you see? Sunnis kill Shiites, Shiites kill Sunnis, moderates fighting with radicals, Iraqis fighting with Iranians, Iran killing their own civilians; the Saudis are afraid of the Iranians and the list goes on and on (and on).

DO YOU KNOW WHO HOLDS FOR THE RECORD FOR THE LARGEST NUMBER OF MURDERS IN HISTORY?

Hitler was responsible for 11 million, Joseph Stalin for at least 20 million, and Chairman Mao murdered 60 million Chinese in just 41 years.

But the Ishmaelite’s, beginning with Mohammed in the 7th century up until now (the killing has been ongoing for 14 centuries and the numbers are now growing exponentially) have murdered over 250 million people.

These numbers are well documented at, https://markhumphrys.com/islam.killings.html

You can argue about it all you want to, but you cannot change history. No one else even comes close!

More than 2,000 years ago, in John 16:2-4, Jesus prophesied,

…the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.

Rest assured we are not picking on the Arabs. God called the Jews a “stiff-necked and obstinate people.” Jesus’ harshest words were reserved for the Pharisees, not because they were so far from God but because they were so close to God and they missed Him!

THE REAL BATTLE IS NOT BETWEEN JEWS AND ARABS―GOD LOVES THEM BOTH!

THE REAL BATTLE IS BETWEEN THE FORCES OF DARKNESS AND THE PRINCE OF PEACE

In John 3:16, God’s Word says,

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

What Does It Mean To Believe?

Here’s A Convicting Testimony From The Men Of Nineveh And The Queen Of Sheba

There is a curious story told by Jesus to a group of people who wanted Him to offer more proof of His authority. This was just after He demonstrated His power over the demonic realm by casting the demon out of a man and setting him free.

Jesus was speaking to a group of self-righteous, religious hypocrites who wanted God on their own terms.

They said, “Give us another sign; do a miracle!” In Matthew 12:41-42, Jesus answered with this story:

The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.

Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians were infamous for their cruelty and barbarism in the treatment of their conquered enemies. They were far from God.

Nineveh is described in Genesis 10:11 as having been founded by Nimrod, the mastermind behind the tower of Babel. They worshiped Ishtar (Easter) the fertility goddess.

Jonah preached a one-line sermon on the judgment of God to a city of 600,000 plus, and the entire city repented in sackcloth and ashes!

The Queen of the South

When the Queen of the South (probably the Queen of Sheba) heard about the wisdom of Solomon, she headed off on a dangerous one thousand, five hundred mile journey, not by plane or train, but by camel!

This had to take 6 months to a year (or more). Day and night, in the cold, the heat, the rain, facing the danger of robbers, crossing rivers, up-hill and down, who knows all she had to go through to get there? One thing is sure; this was a sacrifice.

The point is: she was willing to go to that much trouble, even risking her life, to hear the wisdom of a man―King Solomon. Jesus said,

And a greater than Solomon is here!

How much greater? God created Solomon! The Creator is infinitely greater than the creature.

The point is: if the cruel men of Nineveh repented after hearing one message on the judgment of God, and if the Queen of the South was willing to travel across land and sea by camel to get wisdom, how much more accountable will we be compared to the people in this story?

Jesus said, in the judgment, these two groups will share their testimony. How will yours compare? Have you experienced brokenness, deep contrition, and truly repented for your sin?

It was your sin and mine that nailed Jesus to the cross, and it was His love for you that held Him there. The Bible says He died for our sin, therefore, we are guilty of murdering the Son of God (Acts 2:23; 3:36).

Have you, like the Queen of the South, sought the wisdom of God with all your heart? Many people who name the name of Christ have never even taken the time to read the Bible once!  Most people who claim to be Christians have never even attempted to lead another person to Christ.

SO, WHAT TIME IS IT ON GOD’S PROPHETIC CLOCK?

Jesus was 2,000 years ago. Abraham was 2,000 years before Jesus, and Adam and Eve were 2,000 years before Abraham. So, the Garden of Eden was 6,000 years ago.

The book of Genesis says, God created the heavens and the Earth in 6 days and He rested on the seventh. The New Testament says, with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.

It’s been six days, and the seventh day is dawning. What time is it? It’s time to wake up! The night is almost over and the day is almost here when no man can work.

The Lord is coming soon. Then it will be too late to say you’re sorry, too late to forgive your brother, too late to love and live and get involved in God’s ministry of reconciliation.

It will be too late to pray, too late to read God’s Word, and too late to stop living as if God did not exist. It will be too late to seek God although He is not far from any of us.

Arise and shine, for the Light is come, for the glory of the Lord is risen, the glory of the Lord is come. Arise, and let the light of Christ shine in your heart.

If the Bible is right about Israel, it’s right about everything else: Heaven, hell, God, Jesus, Satan, all of it.

The Bible says, Jesus died on the cross according to the Scriptures and on the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures. Salvation from sin is by grace alone, through faith alone, through Christ alone.

In John 3:16-17 God’s Word says,

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

And who are the true descendents of Abraham? Gal 3:6-9

just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

The gentiles (all non-Jews) who are trusting Jesus Christ have been grafted in to the tree of life. Rom. 11:13-18,

For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. 15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

This is a great quote from Malcolm Muggeridge comparing the passing empires of men to the kingdom of God 

We look back upon history and what do we see? Empires rising and falling, revolutions and counter-revolutions, wealth accumulating and wealth dispersed, one nation dominant and then another. Shakespeare speaks of ‘the rise and fall of great ones that ebb and flow with the moon.’

I look back on my own fellow countrymen ruling over a quarter of the world, the great majority of them convinced, in the words of what is still a favorite song, that, ‘God who’s made the mighty would make them mightier yet.’

I’ve heard a crazed, cracked Austrian announce to the world the establishment of a German Reich that would last a thousand years; an Italian clown announce that he would restart the calendar to begin his own ascension to power.

I’ve heard a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as a wiser than Solomon, more humane than Marcus Aurelius, more enlightened than Ashoka.

I’ve seen America wealthier and in terms of weaponry, more powerful than the rest of the world put together, so that had the American people desired, could have outdone an Alexander or a Julius Caesar in the range and scale of their conquests.

All in one lifetime. All in one lifetime. All gone with the wind.

England part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy.

Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy.

Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominate for some three decades.

America haunted by fears of running out of those precious fluids that keep her motorways roaring, and the smog settling, with troubled memories of a disastrous campaign in Vietnam, and the victories of the Don Quixote’s of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate.

All in one lifetime, all gone. Gone with the wind.

Behind the debris of these self-styled, sullen supermen and imperial diplomats, there stands the gigantic figure of one person, because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom alone mankind might still have hope. The person of Jesus Christ.

The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, through Christ alone, plus, NOTHING! Our good works are the result of our salvation, never the cause of it! See Romans 4:3; 10:9, John 3:16, Eph. 2:8-9.

In other words, the moment we truly believe we are saved. Then, your good works will follow. If they don’t, then you never truly believed with your heart. That is what James meant in James 2:23-24. Intellectual ascent is not heart knowledge.

Justification is a legal term, it means we have been declared righteous, it happens the moment we truly believe. Sanctification is a life-long process.

There are many people who say things like, what does it matter what people believe, as long as they are sincere in their faith? Allow me to illustrate:

A few years ago in Chicago, 7 people died from taking what they thought was Tylenol. The capsules were actually filled with cyanide. They never did catch the people who did it. Were they sincere in their belief that what they were ingesting would help them? The answer is,  Yes. They were sincere.

Unfortunately, what they believed was wrong, their faith was misplaced, and they were sincerely wrong. In this case, they were dead wrong. It cost them their lives.

More than 85% of people polled say they “believe” in God. Believing that God exists doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than eating at McDonald’s makes you a hamburger!

God’s promises in time and eternity are contingent upon us believing in Jesus.

Mark 9:23-24, “And Jesus said to him, ‘If You can, all things are possible to him who believes.’” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and {began} saying, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

Mark 11:23, “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be {granted} him.”

John 3:14-16, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

John 8:24, “I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am {He} you shall die in your sins.”

The most common answer I receive when I ask people, “How do you know you are a Christian? Inevitably the answer is, “Because I believe in Jesus!”

• Hindu’s believe in Jesus + 330 million other gods!
• Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet.
• New Ager’s believe in Jesus too. Almost everybody “believes” in Jesus.

The Bible says that all you have to do to get into heaven is to believe in Jesus! But, the Bible also says that even the demons believe and you won’t see them in heaven!

So what does it mean to “believe in Jesus” and what am I supposed to believe?

First of all, there is a huge difference between believing “in” Jesus and “believing” Jesus. Intellectual ascent is not biblical faith.

Why is getting this right so important? Because our salvation is equated with believing.

Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus {as} Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.”

Acts 16:30-31, “… and after he brought them out, he said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.’”

The question is, what does the Bible mean when it says “believe?”

The Gospel of John is where we find the word “believe” more than any other book of the Bible. It’s 96 times to be exact.

The Greek word we translate “Believe” in English is found in Strong’s Concordance # 4100. The word is pisteuo (pist-yoo’-o). It is used as a verb and it comes from the same root as the word “faith.” It means: to believe in, to trust in, and to rely upon.

Double checking for accuracy, I looked up the word “believe” in the Zondervan Biblical encyclopedia. It said, “See faith.”

In Hebrews 11:6, the Bible says,

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”

This is from Matthew 9:28-29,

“And after He had come into the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’” They said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘Be it done to you according to your faith.’”

The question becomes, “What does it mean to have faith?”

The Zondervan Biblical Encyclopedia shows the Greek word, “Pistis” for the word faith: conviction of truth with the included idea of trust, fidelity, faithfulness.

So, what does it mean to have faith?

I Cor. 4:1, “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”

Who are the epistles written to?

Eph. 1: 1, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.”

Gal. 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

Matt. 25:21, “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your Master.”

Ravi Zacharias said,

“In the Hebrew language there is no word for faith apart from the idea of faithfulness. And in our being faithful to Him we find the purpose for which we were designed in a greater way, that is not bondage that’s liberating. Our faithfulness to Him is the key to unlocking the treasure of all that He has given to us!”

What does it mean to be faithful?

Hebrews 5:9, “And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.”

Acts 5:29, “But Peter and the apostles answered and said, “We must obey God rather than men.”

I Th. 1:6-8, “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

I Pet. 4:17, “For if it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

Matt. 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’” And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

I John 3:22, “… and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.”

John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

To believe, to have faith, to be faithful, and to obey are all the progressive results of believing Jesus. If your faith is it will result in  a life of faithfulness. That becomes loving obedience.

John 14:15-16 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

“Faithfulness (obedience) is the result of faith, never the cause of it..”

Faith takes us beyond intellectual assent—it’s a conviction. The difference between a preference and a conviction is: a preference is something you can change your mind about. A conviction is something you’re willing to die for.

What am I supposed to believe?

John 1:1-5, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 8:24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

John 10:30, “I and the father are one.”

John 14:9, Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

John 20:27-28, “Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Col. 1:15-19, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”

Upon close examination, the serious student will discover that the Word of God stands alone.
There is no possible term of comparison between the Bible and Jesus Christ and any other so-called “holy book” or religious leader in history.
Keep reading and you’ll see why.

God made sure no one could ever claim the Bible was a man-made conspiracy. It was written over the course of 1,500 years, on three continents—Europe, Asia, and Africa.

It was written in three languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

It was produced by 40 different writers, and yet it is one complete comprehensive story with a beginning, middle, and end.

Its main theme is the redemption of man and its main character is Jesus Christ.

It speaks on hundreds of controversial topics in perfect harmony. Completed 1,900 years ago, the Bible tells us: How the world began, how it will end, it reveals the purpose of man, and the future of mankind.

Ultimately, the Bible is the story of redemption—How God can forgive mans sin without compromising His Justice—It’s the story of Jesus Christ!

The Bible compared to the Koran
The main theme of the Bible is God’s redeeming love through Jesus Christ. By contrast, the main theme (by actual word-count) of the Koran is the contrast of believers vs. non-believers and former believers.

Almost every page either extols the virtue of being a Muslim or condemns non-believers as infidels, destined for eternal punishment.

If you were to remove every verse exhorting believers and every verse that threatens unbelievers, there would be little left in the Koran.

My point is not to embarrass another man’s religion but to put the Bible in context.

The Bible is the complete and comprehensive book on life. While the main theme is God’s redeeming love through Jesus Christ, among its more than 31,000 verses you can find the answer to virtually every question you could ever ask about life.

Some of the thousands of topics covered in the Bible include:

Is there a God?
Who am I, why am I here, where did I come from, where am I going?
How was the universe created?
How to find God
How to love and be loved
God’s law
God’s grace
Why all men die
Is there life after death?
Do heaven and hell really exists, how does one get there?
If God is good why is there evil?
What is sin?
How to be forgiven
How to forgive
How to be a good husband
How to be a good wife
How to have a healthy marriage
How to train (and not train) children
How to handle money
How to invest money
How to have lasting and fulfilling relationships
How to choose your friends
How to control your emotions and your thought life
The value of humility
The greatest moral code known to man—the Ten Commandments
God’s view on marriage and divorce
What our responsibility is to our fellow-man
What God’s will is

There are verses that tell you what to do when you experience:

Fear
Anxiety
loneliness
When you are bereaved
Feel defeated
Depressed
Discouraged
Doubting
Facing a crisis
When friends fail you
When you are in need of protection
Needing guidance
How to have perfect peace
What constitutes love
How to get joy
How to develop an eternal perspective
How to overcome temptation
How to kick the sin habit, etc.

The Bible teaches God’s view on adultery, homosexuality, how to overcome anger, lust, greed, pride, hatred, bitterness, jealousy, resentment, forgiveness, how to pray, how not to pray, what constitutes holiness, happiness, humility, honor, etc.

According to the Naves Topical Bible, there are more than 20,000 sub topics addressed in the Bible.

In other words, you can discover what God says about each of those topics. The point is, God wrote a book to teach man how to live successfully, and how to have eternal life in heaven. The Bible is the owners’ manual on life. Isn’t that what you would expect from a book if God wrote it?

Bible prophecy is empirical proof that the Scriptures are divinely inspired.The reason is obvious: No human being can even come close to predicting the future with 100 percent accuracy. Only a person with omniscience can do that!
One example of Bible prophecy concerns the nation of Israel

The Word of God plainly states that the nation of Israel plays a major role in the end-time events of human history, thousands of years in advance. Using Israel as an object lesson, the main theme of the Bible from beginning to end is how God can forgive man’s sin without compromising His justice. Simply stated, the Bible is the story of Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and Man, the Redeemer of all who trust in Him. The story begins and ends in the Holy Land of Israel.

Written thousands of years ago, one recurring theme throughout the Bible is the birth, the death, and the rebirth of the nation of Israel. In Ezekiel 36-39 (written 2,500 years ago) God revealed that the Jews would be exiled from Israel (because of her sin), the land would be desolate for a long time, and in the latter days He would bring them back as a nation. History shows that this is precisely what happened!

In A.D. 70, the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem, and the surviving Jews were exiled. Miraculously, they remained a distinct race even though they had no homeland for nearly 1,900 years! After World War II, they began to trickle back into Israel. Then, in May, 1948, they established a second Jewish state, precisely as the Bible predicted!

In Zechariah 14:2, the Bible clearly states that the last war of the world will be fought over Jerusalem (more proof that the Bible is true).

Dr. Wilbur Smith, who assembled a personal library of 29,000 volumes, concludes,

“Whatever one may think of the authority of and the message presented in the book we call the Bible, there is world-wide agreement that in more ways than one it is the most remarkable volume that has ever been produced in these some 5,000 years of writing on the part of the human race.

“It is the only volume ever produced by man, or a group of men, in which is to be found a large body of prophecies relating to individual nations, to Israel, to all the peoples of the earth, to certain cities, and to the coming of one who was to be the Messiah. The ancient world had many different devices for determining the future, known as divination, but not in the entire gamut of Greek and Latin literature, even though they use the words prophet and prophecy, can we find any real specific prophecy of a great historic event to come in the distant future, nor any prophecy of a Savior to arise in the human race.” 2

The Scriptures also contain metaphysical information that transcend the human intellect. From astronomy, to physics, to biology, geology, to anthropology, to economy, to prophecy and much more, the unbiased student will be forced to the inescapable conclusion that the Bible is a direct revelation from a vastly superior intelligence. The following are just a few examples of God’s omniscience:

How Miraculous Is Bible Prophecy?

Imagine that I predicted 1,000 years in advance the exact city in which the President of the United States would be born, his exact birth date, his nationality, what family he would come from, what kind of car he would drive, where he would go to school, what his name would be, what his father’s and mother’s names would be, how old he would be when he died, when and how he would die, plus dozens of his most significant accomplishments—all in specific detail—and I was 100 per cent accurate on every count. Would that be a miracle? That is exactly what the Bible did in reference to Jesus.

According to the mathematical science of probability, if a number has more than 50 zeros after it, the odds of that happening by chance is virtually impossible. To put this in perspective, the number of atoms in the known universe is believed to be 10 80. That is 1 with 80 zeros after it. According to Ph. D.astrophysicists and other qualified American science professors, the odds of fulfilling the Bible’s prophecies by chance alone are one out of a number expressed as 1 with 2,000 zeros after it!

The very first verse in the Bible perfectly parallels one of the greatest and most advanced physics equations ever discovered. Keep in mind that the Scriptures were written thousands of years before scientific research even began.

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity provided a basis for proof that time, space and matter (which is energy) were not only the foundational facts of science, but each had a beginning (as opposed to being eternal). The implications of this mathematical equation (math being a perfect science) were enormous; it left Einstein (and all the rest of us) staring in the face of God.

Incredibly, the Bible begins with these words, “In the beginning (that’s time) God created (that’s energy) the heavens (that’s space) and the earth (that’s matter). And that’s just the first verse! Just 5 chapters later we come to…

Noah’s Ark

In Genesis chapter 6 we have the record of God telling Noah to build the ark. As for the pseudo scientists who mock those who take this story literally, there are a couple of “minor details” they’ll need to explain before we decide who has the last laugh (there is nothing funny about an unbeliever, it’s only a phrase to make a point).

The author of the book of Genesis gave Noah the exact specifications necessary to build the ark, and to build it right. Here is what is recorded in Genesis 6:14-16:

“Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.”

A cubit is the length of a man’s arm from his elbow to the tip of his middle finger (about a foot and a half). Based on the Biblical account, we know (within a matter of inches) how long, how wide and how high Noah’s Ark was! That means we can test it.

Interestingly, it was not until the 20th century that scientists built a scaled down model of Noah’s ark using the exact ratios of height, width, and length found in the Genesis account. They wanted to test the sea worthiness of its design. Estimating the weight for the proper ballast, they put their experiment to the test in a large tank filled with water. Then they produced waves, gradually increasing their intensity.

What they discovered was astounding. It wouldn’t sink! They concluded that a ship built to those specifications would have been one of the most sea worthy vessels ever constructed. What are the odds of Noah guessing how to build a ship of this magnitude and getting it right? About the same odds you would have of being struck by lightning twice in the same spot, and winning the lottery, only to discover that the plane you’re on is going down because it was struck my a metor! How did Noah know this? He didn’t. God did.

Here is another inexplicable fact (humanly speaking) about Noah’s flood. Scientists have discovered marine fossils on mountain peaks all over the world, including Mt. Everest, the highest point on earth. How did the fossils of sea creatures ascend 29,000 feet above sea level? Do our atheistic “scientists” have an explanation for this? Were they flying fish? Or, maybe they came from another planet! The Bible provides the answer in Genesis 7:17-20:

“Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.”

Go to Answers in Genesis on the World Wide Web, to learn everything you ever wanted to know about Noah’s flood.

History and the Bible

Another unique thing about the Bible is the fact that God’s plan of redemption (the whole point of the Book) is interwoven in and through actual historical events. The Bible’s historical accuracy has been verified not only by secular historians, but by more than 100 years of painstaking research by archeologist’s. Most of the great Bible stories (names, dates, times, places and events) have been discovered by this scientific method and proven to be accurate time and again.

The Bible does not start out, “Once upon a time.” The origin of man begins in a real geographical location called the Garden of Eden. Its exact location is revealed in Genesis chapter 2 where we read,

“Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers.”

In Genesis 2:11-14, the Word of God identifies the names and the location of these rivers!

“The name of the first is Pishon … the name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole. And the name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”

Here we are today, approximately 6,000 years later and two of those rivers still exist. The Tigris and the Euphrates rivers meet in a place called “Al Qurnah”, which is located in southeastern Iraq.

Ancient history and the Bible

Herodotus, the Greek historian, is known as the “father of history” and was a contemporary of Malachi, the writer of the last Old Testament book. But the Bible records events going as far back as Abraham (2,000 years before Christ), and for that matter, it takes us all the way back to the creation of the world! There is no other book that can make such a claim.

Reading the Bible, we learn of the Mesopotamian world through the lives of the patriarchs. We see God’s plan of redemption played out in the epic drama of the Hebrew people being delivered from slavery in Egypt. What follows is the fascinating account of the children of God marching through the Red Sea, the revelation of God giving the Ten Commandments on Mt Sinai and the beginning of the nation of Israel.

We learn the rich history of Israel’s rise to power under Kings Saul, David and Solomon. We also learn of Israel’s downfall because of her sin. The Bible does not cover up the dark side of its greatest characters. The Word of God tells it like it is. Three of its greatest heroes, Moses, King David and the Apostle Paul were all murderers.

Through the life of Daniel we read the history of the Babylonian Empire and King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was born during the reign of King Josiah of Judah, who was followed by his son Jehoiakim, who was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel’s prophecies concerning the future kingdoms that would rule the world were so precise, secular historians and skeptics insist they had to be written after the fact.

Through the eyes of Queen Esther we learn of the Persian Empire under King Ahasuerus and how God used Esther to save her people from annihilation.

It is no coincidence that the hero of the story (Jesus Christ) does not appear until the Roman Empire came to power. The phrase, “All roads lead to Rome,” was coined because Rome built roads that made travel much easier. Thus, another phrase was coined. With travel being vastly improved, so were communications. As a result, the Disciples of Christ were credited with “turning the world upside down” with the Gospel!

The New Testament begins in Bethlehem of Judea, in the time of King Herod. Hundreds of names, dates, times, places and events are recorded, leaving an obvious trail for us to follow.

Why did God choose to write the Bible this way? God has revealed Himself and His plan of redemption through history (the past) and through prophecy (the future) so that the nations may know that He is the Lord.  In Isaiah 46:9-10 God says,

“Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; {I am} God, and there is no one like me, Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.’”

The incredible prophecy of the Ishmaelites

In Genesis 16:11-12 we read,

And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.

WAS THE BIBLE RIGHT ABOUT THE ISHMAELITES?

Just look at the Middle East. What do you see? As of this writing, most of the Middle East (and other nations in the region) is completely up-for-grabs. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, the Arab countries that surround Israel are engulfed in civil war (which is anything but civil).

Sunnis kill Shiites; Shiites kill Sunnis, moderates fighting with radicals, Iraqis fighting with Iranians, and governments using poison gas to kill their own civilians. The Saudis are afraid of the Iranians, and the list goes on and on (and on). As of this writing (September 2013), it is reported that more than 100,000 are dead in Syria alone!

DO YOU KNOW WHO HOLDS THE RECORD FOR THE LARGEST NUMBER OF MURDERS IN HISTORY?

Adolph Hitler murdered 11 million in 12 years.  Joseph Stalin is responsible for 20 million in 30 years. Mao Tse-tung is responsible for 60 million Chinese in just 41 years!

This is well documented at, https://markhumphrys.com/islam.killings.html

More than 2,000 years ago, in John 16:2-4, the Lord Jesus prophesied,

…the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.

Astronomy and the Bible

• The ancient Egyptians believed that the earth was suspended on five pillars.
• The Greeks believed Atlas held the earth on his shoulders.
• The Hindus taught that the earth was held up by an elephant, the elephant was on a tortoise, the tortoise was on a serpent, and the serpent was swimming in a cosmic sea. They don’t tell us what held up the cosmic sea!
• And, it was just a few hundred years ago that most people thought the earth was flat! In fact, The Flat Earth Society still does!
• In Sura 18:86, The Koran says, “the sun sets in a puddle of mud!”
• Yet in chapter 26 of Job, the Bible says, “God hangs the earth upon nothing.” And in 750 B.C., the 40th chapter of Isaiah told us that “God sits upon the circle of the earth.” But, man didn’t know that until Columbus sailed around the world without falling off!
• Before Galileo came along, star gazers believed there were about 2,500 stars. And, just about 2,500 years before Galileo, the prophet Jeremiah said, “The host of heaven cannot be numbered” (Jeremiah 33:22). How could Jeremiah possibly have known that? He didn’t. God did.

The Old and the New Testament

The two divisions offer more proof

Just to make sure no one could ever claim the Bible was a man-made conspiracy, there are 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Through fulfilled prophecy, both testaments point back and forth to the other as positive proof of their divine authenticity and perfect unity.

This is fascinating because without the New Testament, the Old Testament would be incomplete, and without the Old Testament, the New Testament would be utterly incomprehensible! Each is a guide to properly understanding the other.

The Old Testament is the foundation upon which the New Testament is built. And the New Testament constantly refers back to the Old to establish its credibility. This is intended to reveal its super-natural origin through prophecy.

The very first verse in the New Testament forces you to this inescapable conclusion. Matthew 1:1 shows us two things. First, that God always keeps His promises, and secondly, that the Bible is one book!

“This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.”

This verse says in effect, “If you are starting here, you have to go back to Genesis man!” Who would pick up any other book and start reading right in the middle? Yet, people do that with the Bible, and wonder why they have trouble understanding it.

“Starting in Matthew is like walking into a movie half-way through. It’s like thinking you are telling a good joke when all you can remember is the punch line.”

Without knowing the covenant promises that God made with Abraham and David, Matthew 1:1 would be utterly boring. Yet to those who understand it in the context of the promises made by God in the Old Testament, this verse explodes with excitement!

Matthew 1:1 announces to the world that the promise of a Savior going all the way back to the book of Genesis begins now!

This same principle holds true for more than 1,200 verses in the New Testament.

• What is the significance of Christ dying on Passover and being raised on First Fruits were it not for the book of Exodus?
• What sense would John have made when he said of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?”
• Or Jesus when He said, “This is the new covenant in My blood,” were it not for the doctrine of the blood atonement in Leviticus?

The sacrificial system of ancient Judaism provided the world with 1,500 years of literal, historical, and theological context so when Jesus came along and offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the world this would all make sense.    

Most of us think of Matthew as the first book of the New Testament, and it is. In our modern English translations, Matthew is also the 40th book of the 66 that make up the Bible. The number 40 is significant since throughout scripture, it represents the number of completion.

Furthermore, the Old Testament contains truths that are essential for a proper worldview that are found in no other source. For examples

• Only in the book of Genesis do we discover the origin of the universe
• The origin
• Man’s fall into sin
• The doctrine of marriage and the family
• The establishment of the nations and languages
• The prophetic significance of Israel!
• Only in the Old Testament are we told of the rebellion in Heaven that turned Lucifer into Satan, and thus the origin of evil, and the promise of a Redeemer.

 “The Old Testament worldview is clearly distinct from other worldviews, such as polytheism, pantheism, gnosticism, deism, atheism, and naturalism. The New Testament does not provide another worldview but simply assumes the one taught in the Old Testament.”

The Bible Contains the Exclusive Story on Jesus Christ!

Jesus Christ is the Most Famous Person in History

The life of Christ represents the defining moment in the history of mankind. Jesus had such a profound impact on the world by what He said and by what He did that the world marks time by His death and resurrection!

We live in the 21^st century “A.D”. That is Latin for Anno Domini which means “In the year of the Lord”. The reason the world marks time by the birth is because three days after He was crucified, He raised Himself from the dead! No one ever did that before or since.

I’m not so amazed that Jesus raised Himself from the dead. I’m more amazed that He could have died in the first place! Death is the result of sin. That is why all men die, no matter how they die. But Jesus was sinless. How could He have died? The answer is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21,

“He made Him who knew no sin {to be} sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Christ died all right—He took on the sins of the whole world, past, present and future! That is how God can legally forgive us without compromising His justice. Someone else paid the price for you!

John 1:1 and Colossians 1:17 state that Jesus was God manifested in human flesh, eternal and not created.

According to the New Testament, repentance and believing in the deity of Jesus is what constitutes salvation. In John 8:26 Jesus said,

“… you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am (He) you shall die in your sins.”

No man ever spoke like Jesus did, before or since.

Anyone can say that he or she is a prophet, anyone can say, “I am God” but proving it is much more difficult. There are seven “I am” sayings of Jesus in the New Testament. Each is a clear reference to Exodus 3:14 when God revealed His name to Moses: “I am, that I am, tell them I am.” So, when Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” the Pharisees knew exactly what He meant, and they wanted to stone Him for claiming to be God (John 8:58, 59; 10:30,3 1)!

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world”. But, He did not just say, “I am the light of the world,” He said, “I am the light of the world” and He gave sight to a man born blind!

He said, “I am the bread of life.” But He did not just say, “I am the bread of life,” He said, “I am the bread of life”, and He fed 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish!

He did not just say, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He said, “I am the resurrection and the life” and He raised Lazarus (and many others) from the dead!

Each of the “I Am” sayings was accompanied by a miracle, which in turn revealed His deity. The one miracle He performed more than any other was that of giving sight to the blind. In Exodus 4:11, God is speaking to Moses,

“And the LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes {him} dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?’”

The “I Am” sayings show that Jesus not only claimed to be God, but offered empirical proof of being the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Redeemer of mankind. He proved His verbal claims with literal miracles. Jesus said, “Peace be still” and the winds and the sea obeyed Him! He said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it.” He was speaking of the temple of His body!

Jesus claimed to be God. He not only said He was God (anyone can say that), He offered proof of His claim by doing things only God could do. If God came to earth as a man, you would expect Him to say and do things that would clearly distinguish Him from all other men. Jesus did!

The Bible has the definitive (and exhaustive) definition of Love

Another outstanding basis for proof that the Bible is divinely inspired is its unparalleled teaching on love. How is this proof of divinity? We are social creatures. God made us that way. One of man’s greatest needs is to love and be loved. The Bible reveals the most comprehensive teaching on love there is.

You cannot find a more comprehensive teaching on love in any other religion, philosophy or system of thought. Not even close. Love is more than an emotion, it’s proactive and it’s powerful enough to soften the hardest heart when nothing else will. Love is one of the attributes of God (1 John 4:8).

No one has ever taken love to the level Jesus did. It was Christ who said, “Love your enemies.” But He didn’t just say, “Love your enemies.” He said, “Love your enemies”, and while He hung on the cross, in unimaginable pain from the top of His head to the tips of His toes, He prayed, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

No mere man has ever loved like that. This love was so profound, so completely antithetical to human nature, the thief on his right recognized His divinity, and said, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus replied, “This day you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

No one could make up such stories and expect anyone to believe them.

Christianity is not a religion, it’s a revelation. And once you have had the revelation, it leads you to a personal love relationship with God. It is both the law of God and the love of God that draw us to Christ. Our relationship with God is based on faith, hope and love in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

If everyone loved God and loved their neighbors as themselves we would live in a perfect world! The opposite of love is not just hate, it’s also selfishness. For God so loved the world He gave! Selfishness is the essence of sin, and giving is the fruit of love. Man will never solve his own problems because man is the problem. Man (without God) is inherently selfish.

God is love

The Bible says, “God is love”, so love is an attribute of God’s divine nature. The divinity is found in the fact that the Bible has the definitive answer to the question, “What is love?” Why is that important? Man’s greatest need is to love and be loved.

The greatest commandment in all of the Bible is to love God with all you heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Where is the greatness in that? Because if everyone embraces just those two commandments we would live in a perfect world. But the Bible does much more than tell us to love, from cover to cover the whole point of God’s revelation is His redeeming love for mankind. And because our father loves His children, He wants us to love each other.

The concept of love is defined, explained, illustrated, exemplified, proved and demonstrated hundreds of ways in the Bible. The word is used more than 300 times. number of times the word is used is not the point. The fact is, you cannot find a more comprehensive teaching on love in any other religion, philosophy or system of thought. Not even close. Love is more than an emotion, it’s proactive and it’s powerful enough to soften the hardest heart when nothing else will.

In the English language we have only one word for love. You can say, “I love spaghetti, I love my dog, and I love my wife.” Do you love your wife in the same way you love your dog? In the ancient Greek language of the New Testament, there were four words to express the idea of love,

• Storge means:  Affection. It is the word used to describe love for your father, or mother.
• Philos means:  Friendship and fondness.
• Eros means:  The intimate love between a husband and wife.
• Agape means:  Unconditional, self-sacrificial love.

Agape love means ─ I love you even if you don’t love me back. That is what makes you valuable in God’s sight. It’s not because you are so good, or so religious. Your value is in the fact that He loves you in spite of all your shortcomings and sin!

Looking to First Corinthians 13:4-7, God’s Word moves from the motive of love to the reality of how love is expressed.

 Love is patient, love is kind, {and} is not jealous; love does not brag {and} is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong {suffered,}does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never falls.

Man will never solve his own problems because man is the problem. Man (without God) is inherently selfish. Paul’s definition of love goes against our natural inclination to be self-centered.

• The greatest commandment in the Bible is to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40).
• God is love (1 John 4:8).
• For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16).
• We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
• To love God you must love your brother (1 John 4:20).
• If you mistreat your wife your prayers are hindered (1 Peter 3:7).
• Love is defined (1 Corinthians 13: 1-8).
• We are obligated to love (Romans 13:1-8).
• Sacrificial love is the key to a happy marriage (Ephesians 5:25).
• There is no greater love than to sacrifice your life to save a friend (John 15:13).
• Love is the distinguishing mark of the Christian (John 13:35).
• True love is unconditional (Luke 6:32).
• Love includes your enemies (Luke 6:27).
• Love is the greatest spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 13: 13).
• Obedience to God is based on love (John 14:15).
• God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
• There are hundreds more!

No one has ever taken love to the level Jesus did

It was Christ who said, “Love your enemies.” But He didn’t just say, “Love your enemies.” It was agape love that Christ demonstrated on the cross. While He hung there in unspeakable agony, His accusers laughed, mocked, ridiculed, and spat at Him. The soldiers were throwing dice at the foot of the cross to see who would keep His robe. It was in this context that He prayed:

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. “

No mere man could have expressed concern for the eternal destiny of others under those circumstances. This love was so profound, so completely antithetical to human nature, the thief on his right recognized Jesus was divine and said,

“Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus replied,

“This day you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

No one could make up such stories and expect anyone to believe it. Love is the distinguishing mark of the man of God. Where else will you find a more authoritative teaching on what love is? The dictionary, the Encyclopedia Britannica or People Magazine? The Bible contains the most comprehensive teaching on love that there is.

The Bible shows me how to express my love for God and my neighbor in a tangible way. See for yourself:

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled {the} Law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of {the} Law” (Rom.13:8–10).

Thanks to the moral law, love can actually be weighed and measured against an objective standard. Without the guidelines of the law, love would be abstract and relative. In 1 Cor. 13, we see the effects of love, whereas the moral law defines it.

In His infinite wisdom, God tells us that “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10b). If I truly love my neighbor, according to Romans 13, I will:

• Honor his marriage covenant, and mine, by not lusting after his wife.
• I will forgive him when he wrongs me, rather than committing murder.
• I will honor his property by not stealing it.
• I will tell him the truth (and what truth is) when I speak to him.
• I will rejoice in the blessings God has given him, rather than coveting his goods.

Isn’t that the kind of neighborhood in which you want to live? Can you even begin to imagine what would happen to our world if we all “kept the law” according to this standard?

Jesus’ teaching on love

In Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus was asked this question,

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him,”‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

In the verse above Jesus is connecting love to the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are divided into two “tables.” The first 4 commandments teach me how to love God and the next 6 teach me how to love my neighbor.

God is to be loved supremely over all created things. To love people the same way we love God would be idolatry. People are to be loved, but God is to be worshiped!If I love my neighbor, I will not murder him, I will not lust after his wife, I will not steal from him, I will not lie to him, and I will not jealously desire what belongs to him.

Remember, when God says “no” to one thing, He is saying “yes” to something better.

• When God says, “Do not murder,” He is saying, “Forgive your brother.”
• When God says, “Do not commit adultery,” He is saying, “Be faithful to your wife.”
• When God says, “Do not steal,” He is saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
• When God says, “Do not lie,” He is saying, “Tell the truth. It’s truth that sets you free”
• When God says, “Do not covet,” He is saying, “Learn to be content.”

What would our world look like today if everyone adopted this spiritual attitude of love for God and for our neighbor?

The word love and its derivatives (beloved, loves, loving, etc.), are found more than 300 times in the Bible. The first time love is mentioned in both the Old and New Testament, it’s not the love between a man and his wife, a man for his family, nor for his country. In both cases, it’s the love of a father for his son.

The greatest need of the human heart is to love and be loved. So, we should not be surprised to learn that the greatest commandment in the Bible is love! God’s love is not abstract, it is a principled love. Because I love my wife and children there are certain things I do and certain things I will not do. That is principled love. True love has boundaries clearly defined in scripture.

How interesting that the words law and love are spoken in the same breadth. Inextricably woven together we discover God’s law of love! We are indebted by divine decree to love our neighbor.

People are finite creatures, and as such, our love for them has limits, but our love for God must be preeminent. Our loyalty to Him is never to be denied or compromised. When man’s laws conflict with God’s laws we must obey God rather than men.

Law and love do not contradict each other, they define each other. This verse reveals that love is not just an emotion. God defines love as something that is proactive. It’s not just what you don’t do, it’s what you do and why you do it that counts.

 Who is my neighbor?

 In Luke 10:29-37 Jesus is asked, “Who is my neighbor?” His answer was not what the man wanted to hear. In fact, it was shocking. Read the story and I’ll explain why,

 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus,

“And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied and said, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him, and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on {them;} and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers {hands?}” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

This was shocking because of all the people Jesus could have used for His illustration the Samaritan’s were considered infidels by most of the people to whom He was speaking!

In using the Samaritan, Jesus was addressing the age-old problem of pride, prejudice, and bigotry. It was God who created the races and languages at the Tower of Babel back in Genesis chapter 11. God loves all men and women equally. The story ends with the admonition to, “Go and do the same.”

According to Jesus being religious is not synonymous with true spirituality

How interesting that Jesus names a priest and a Levite. They both claimed to be religious leaders, yet both walk right past a needful man and leave him for dead. Jesus is teaching that true spiritually manifests itself not in religion, but in love.

The Bible clearly states that religion without love is worthless. What God desires is for His people to be just, to love mercy, and to walk in humility before Him. This is from Micah 6:8. Again, it’s about relationships not religion. Here is the same idea stated negatively from I John 4:19-21 in the New Testament:

We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

 Love my enemy?

When Jesus began His teaching ministry 2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire ruled the world with an iron fist. They won all their arguments by killing their enemies. The teaching of Jesus could not have been more antithetical to the worlds idea of justice. In Matthew 5:44 Jesus said, “…love your enemies.” In Matthew 5:46Jesus said,

 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax gatherers do the same?”

In other words, if you only love those who love you, how are you any different from the rest of the world? To put this in modern terminology, even the Mafia supposedly love their own family members, but they kill their enemies. If you only love those who love you, Jesus is asking how are you any different from the Mafia?

Love can change the hardest hearts when nothing else can. Chapter 13 of First Corinthians contains what many believe to be the Bible’s most noble and magnificent chapter on love. A diamond among the jewels, it’s known as “the love chapter.” In 1 Corinthians 13:1-8, Paul puts love in perspective:

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

God says that love is greater than the greatest orator who lacks love. Love is divine; words and rhetoric alone mean nothing by comparison. Paul goes on to say, if you are a prophet without peer, if you can explain the secrets and the mysteries of the universe so even a child can understand, if your motive is not love, then your insights mean nothing before God. The most generous philanthropist and even martyrdom mean nothing if the driving force behind it is not love. In 1 Samuel 16:7 the Bible says, “Only man looks on the outer appearance, God looks on your heart!”

The Bible contains the greatest moral code known to man—the Ten Commandments

You can know the Ten Commandments were written by God not by man because if man obeyed them, we would live in a perfect world. Here is just one example from the seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”

The very first institution ordained by God in the Bible was marriage. And, it is defined by our Creator as a sacred relationship between one man and one woman. In Genesis 2:24 God said,

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Then, in Genesis 39:9 (500 years before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments), we find Joseph resisting the advances of his employers wife by saying,

“There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

How could Joseph have such a deep conviction about sexual immorality 500 years before God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai? Romans 2:15 provides the answer,

“The law is written on every man’s heart.”

In other words, every man from the beginning of time until the end of the world whether or not he has ever heard of Jesus or even seen a bible knows instinctively that it’s wrong to have another man’s wife.  There is no other way to account for this fact other than to acknowledge that our creator put his moral law in every heart.

Then in Exodus 20:14, the seventh of the Ten Commandments is,

“You shall not commit adultery.”

When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, pagan religions celebrated sexual immorality as a form of worship to their gods. The Canaanites and the Babylonians worshiped Baal, which included temple prostitution. The Greeks and Romans also had their own forms of “sanctified prostitution.”

The doctrine of marital fidelity is a foreign concept to all man-made religions. The Judeo-Christian worldview alone teaches that human sexuality is sacred and exclusive. It is sacred (holy) because it began in the mind of God.

Islam: The Koran teaches that a man can have 4 wives and numerous concubines. Mohammed, the founder of Islam had 11 wives. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism had 33 wives.

“Nature” itself teaches that the doctrine of polygamy cannot be divinely inspired since the ratio of men to women in the world is 1 to 1. If there were 10 women to every man in the world this doctrine might not be so obviously false.

Hinduism:  In India, the devadasi (day-vah-dah-see) system is the Hindu practice of temple prostitution. The practice of “dedicating” girls to Hindu gods has existed for more than 5,000 years.  Children taken from a lower social status (called a “lower caste”) are forced (by social and economic pressure) to begin a life of prostitution at age 11 or 12.  Women are told that this “service to the Gods” is a “holy duty” they must fulfill. Ironically, high caste Hindu priests will never eat from or even touch the cup or bowl of a lower caste Hindu, but they will have sexual intercourse with them!

Buddhism:  This has no explicit sexual code. Having no code, by default, is a code. Many Buddhist monks have expressed the opinion that engaging in prostitution purely for helping others can be a source of karmic merit.  One of the “helps” they provide is by making offerings and gifts to Buddhist temples! That is one reason the Buddhist hierarchy is silent on prostitution, and one reason many temples are so lavish.

Christianity:  In Deuteronomy 23:17-18 the Bible says,

“There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.”

Matt 5:27-29 says,

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery. ‘But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Faithfulness to one’s marital partner in thought, word, and deed is exclusive to the Judeo-Christian worldview! In all man-made religions women are considered to be of lesser value than men, and treated as commodities.

Only the Judeo-Christian worldview teaches that men and women are created in the image of God and are of equal value. God’s moral law as contained in the Ten Commandments clearly separates Christianity from man-made religions because it represents the highest moral code known to man.

What man would make up a law against lust and who but God could enforce it? So much for the false notion that all religions are basically the same.

The Nature of God and the Trinity—More Proof the Bible is True 

Is the Trinity a fact or is it fiction? Do Christians really worship three god’s as some claim? Is the Trinity a blatant contradiction and a damnable heresy?

The Trinity is one of the most frequently attacked doctrines by the cults and false religions.

The fact is, creation is filled with illustrations of spiritual truths that reveal the many attributes of God, not the least of which is the Trinity. In fact, there are tri-unities all around us! For example:

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity revealed the fact that life as we know it consists of three things, time, space, and matter (which is energy).

Interestingly, the Bible starts out with these words:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

In the beginning (that’s time), God created (that’s energy), the heavens (that’s space), and the earth (that’s matter)!

Time: Time has three elements, the past, the present and the future. The past is not the present, the present is not the future and the future is not the past. One in not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

Space: We live in a three-dimensional world, Height, width and depth. Height is not width, width is not depth and depth is not height. One in not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

Matter: All Matter is made up of atoms. All atoms consist of three basic components, protons, neutrons and electrons. A proton is not a neutron, a neutron is not an electron, and an electron is not a proton. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other (and still remain a complete atom), and yet each is distinct!

Two thousand years after the New Testament was written, we still cannot see an atom!

Heb. 11:3,

“By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

Interesting too is the fact that protons are positively charged and electrons are negatively charged. Like trying to stick two magnets together, these two components repel each other. Theoretically, atoms should explode and scientists cannot figure out what holds them together.

Col. 1:17 says,

“And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

The Bible says man is made in the image of God.

I Thess. 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to this verse, you have a triune nature. You have a body, a soul and a spirit. In the Greek of the New Testament, the word body is soma, soul is psuche, and spirit is pneuma. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

How about the human mind?

Scientists tell us that the human mind (brain) is the most complex thing in the universe. The mind is also a trinity. The mind, the will, and the emotions. Your mind (intellect) is not the same as your emotions. Your emotions are not the same as your will. Your will is not the same as your mind. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each is distinct!

Earth wind and fire

Earth itself has three layers. The crust, the mantle of rock, and the core which is molten. The Earth is the third planet from the Sun.

Wind

You can live for thirty days without food, you can go three days without water, but you can’t go three minutes without air. The air you breath is 78.1 % Nitrogen, 20.9% oxygen, 1% water vapor.

Fire

Take a close look at a campfire. It is blue at the bottom, orange in the middle and white at the top.

Water

The world is two-thirds water. Your body is two-thirds water. One molecule of water consists of two hydrogen atoms and one atom of oxygen. Hydrogen by itself is flammable. Oxygen by itself is flammable. But, if you put them both together in a two to one ratio you have a third substance with which you can use to extinguish a fire! Can you rationally understand that? The combination of three atoms makes one molecule of water.

The Sun

When you look at the sun you might say, “I see the sun,” but in reality all you are seeing is the light of the sun. This light allows us to see things on earth.

Just the same, when you feel the heat from the sun you say, “I feel the sun,” but in reality you only feel the heat produced by the sun which makes all of life possible on earth.

Science tells us that the sun is actually a burning gas.  So, I see the light produced by the burning gas and I feel its heat.  The one star (the sun) has three distinct features – gas, light, and heat – all existing simultaneously, which make up the one sun. In that sence the sun has a triune nature.

Light

When Einstein discovered the theory of relativity he was trying to answer the question, “What is light?” Interestingly, the Bible says, “God is light.”

Today we know, there is invisible light, visible light and the heat associated with light. Invisible light such as Micro Waves, Radio Waves, X-Rays, Gamma Rays etc., are invisible. They are neither seen nor felt.

1 Timothy 1:17, says God the Father is invisible,

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, {be} honor and glory forever and ever.”

The same idea is found in John 4:24,

“God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Then we have visible light which is both seen and felt. The same is true of Jesus:

John 1:1, “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:14, “ And the word became flesh, and we beheld His glory.”

I John 1:1, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life.”

And the Heat that is associated with Light parallels the heat associated with the conviction of the Holy Spirit:

Matthew 3:11 says, As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John 16:8, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment.”

The word translated “Convict” in the original Greek means: To expose the hidden things, to chastise moral sense.

When you get convicted of sin, you get hot!

As you can see, weather or not you can rationally understand something does not preclude you from believing it! Do you understand atomic theory? I do not. But, that does not prevent me from enjoying the benefits of electricity coming from our atomic power plants.

I have demonstrated that the Trinity is not illogical, irrational, or contradictory

Did any of you have eggs for breakfast this morning? It consists of the shell, the white and the yoke. Were you eating three eggs? Even a chicken can answer that one! If you are still adamant, that God cannot be a Trinity, I’ll ask you the same question God asked Job in Job chapter 38:

“Who is this who darkens council by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have the understanding.”

There are 1,00,000,000,000 stars in our galaxy, and a 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the known universe (that is because that is only as far as we can see). God created all of them, He holds them all in place, and calls them all by name! For a mortal man who has never seen God to state emphatically that God cannot be in heaven, come to earth as a man, and be in all places at the same time is to me, a greater mystery than the Trinity!

If the resurrection is true then Christianity is true

Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853) was the famous Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University, and succeeded Justice Joseph Story as the Dane Professor of Law in the same university, upon Story’s death in 1846.

H. W, H. Knott says of this great authority in Jurisprudence: “Ib the efforts of Story and Greenleaf is to be ascribed the rise of the Harvard Law School to its eminent position among the legal schools of the United States.!

Greenleaf produced a famous work entitled A treatise on the Law of Evidence which “is still considered the greatest single authority on evidence in the entire literature of legal procedure.”

In 1846, while still Professor of Law at Harvard, Greenleaf wrote a volume entitled An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice. In his classic work the author examines the value of the testimony of the apostles to the resurrection of Christ. The following are this brilliant jurist’s critical observations:

“The great truths which the apostles declared, were, that Christ had risen from the dead, and that only through repentance from sin, and faith in Him, could men hope for salvation. This doctrine they asserted with one voice, everywhere, not only under the greatest discouragements, but in the face of the most appalling errors that can be presented to the mind of man. Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public tribunal. His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world. The laws of every country were against the teachings of His disciples. The interests and passions of all the rulers and great men in the world were against them. The fashion of the world was against them.

“Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments, and cruel deaths. Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, rejoicing. As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage. They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted; and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most melancholy and terrific frequency. It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.

“If it were morally possible for them to have been deceived in this matter every human motive operated to lead them to discover and avow their error. To have persisted in so gross a falsehood, after it was known to them, was not only to encounter, for life, all the evils which man could inflict, from without, but to endure also the pangs of inward and conscious guilt; with no hope of future peace, no testimony of a good conscience, no expectation of honor or esteem among men, no hope of happiness in this life, or in the world to come.”

A closing illustration

A lady was driving to church on a cold, winter, Sunday morning. On her way she stopped for a red light. Just after the light turned green, her car stalled in the middle of the intersection. As she tried to restart the car, the man behind her laid on his horn. As she attempted to start the car again, she noticed in her rear view mirror the man behind her getting out of his car. He walked right up to her window, bent down and started yelling at her to move her car. He was late for a very important appointment! With her hands shaking, she tried it again, and much to her relief, the car started. Arriving at church she was still visibly shaken by the man’s anger. After the musical portion of the service was over, it was announced, “We have a guest speaker today!” After giving him a grand introduction about how qualified he was and what a wonderful man of God he was, as he was walking up to the pulpit, you guessed it, it was him! This lady was aghast! She stood to her feet, turned around, and walked out. She had no interest in hearing a word this man had to say, and rightly so.

Love is the greatest virtue, and the most life-changing force on earth. Love is greater than academic achievement, economic influence, political power or religion. Pride is self-centered, and therefore, opposed to love. If you need more love, become more loving.

The most profound demonstration of God’s love for mankind is revealed in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was His sacrifice that made atonement for sin and provided redemption not only for man, but for the universe itself. Yes, even the universe is dying. Physicists call it the Second Law of Thermal Dynamics. Theologians know what it’s called and what causes it; it’s called sin. The Bible says that God is going to let sin run its course. After that, He will create new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells-forever!

How Powerful is the Love of Jesus?

“I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of people would die for him.”

Napoleon Bonaparte

As the french skeptic Ernest Renan admitted,

“It would take a Jesus to forge a Jesus, and if it is true that what we have in the Bible is a giant forgery, then let us worship the individual who was so brilliant as to think up a picture of a person like Jesus of Nazareth and the story of the Word of God.”

James T. Fisher from: A Few Buttons Missing: The Case Book of a Psychiatrist:

“If you were to take the sum total of all authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified of psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene, if you were to combine them and refine them and cleave out all the excess verbiage, if you were to take the whole of the meat and none of the parsley, and if you were to have these unadulterated bits of scientific knowledge concisely expressed by the most capable of living poets, you would have an awkward and incomplete summary of the Sermon on the Mount. And it would suffer immeasurably by comparison.”

This kind of wisdom cannot be found in any other religion, philosophy, or system of thought. Jesus Christ was God incarnate.

What about the people who have never heard of Jesus or even seen a Bible? That is just like our question about where did God come from?

In Genesis 4:26 the Word of God says, “And men began to call upon the name of the Lord.” How can that be? That was before the Bible, before there were any churches, or synagogues, before radio, TV, CDs DVDs or as far as we know teachers or preachers of any kind!

Our answer begins in the book of Psalms chapter 19:1-3 where we read:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.”

Keep Reading…

In Eccl. 3:11 King Solomon said,

“He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”

And in Romans 2:15 we read,

“The law is written on every man’s heart.” Here God reveals that the concept of eternal life after death and moral accountability for how we lived is written in the genetic code of every man’s heart. Romans 2:15 is referring to the moral law of the Ten Commandments.

The fact is, whether they will admit it or not, every man knows in his heart it is wrong to murder, to commit adultery, to steal and lie. It is written on every mans heart just as sure as geese fly south in the winter and Salmon swim upstream to spawn. God put a moral compass in the heart of every man called conscience.

Therefore, Romans 1:18-20 says,

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

God is saying in essence, all an honest, thinking person has to do is look and meditate on the sun, the moon, the stars, and the wonders of creation to know that anything so perfectly designed, so complex, and so well-balanced as is our world and our universe could in no way have made itself!

The Miracle of Life

The millisecond your life began you were a tiny seed called a cell. You were so small; a microscope was needed to see you. When the time came for the race to begin you were literally running for your life.

What makes this such a staggering accomplishment is the fact that you were one of more than 300,000,000 other runners all running for the same prize–a chance to kiss the queen. Only one would win the right to live, all others would die.

The race began for everyone at the same time and everybody faced the same hurtles. You swam through what seemed like miles of dark tunnels. The pack was tight and everyone was pushing and shoving toward the goal. Imagine, more than 300 million runners all running as fast as they could trying to finish first.

But you, you were the fastest, the strongest, the most passionate and persistent runner of all. Finally, as the light at the end of the tunnel began to shine, you were the first one to break on through to the other side. You won the exclusive right to meet the queen in all of her glory. Upon entering the royal chamber with a shout of ecstasy as you heard the words, “I now pronounce you husband and wife” and you kissed the bride. Nine months later a champion was born and it was you!

Winning a race with that many other runners should qualify you for the cover on the Wheaties box. Like I said, you’re a world class champion. Don’t ever let anyone convince you otherwise. You were born to win.

On that glorious day of conception the 2 cells became 1 and miraculously the 1 became 2 as the process of life began. At that moment, human DNA which has never existed before determined all of your physical traits: gender, hair color, eye color, all genetically predetermined.

Consider Psalms 139:14-16,

“I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.”

Just 22 days later your heart began to beat. At week 3 we could see your eyes and ears. At week 6 your fingers and toes were developed. By week 11 you could smile, frown and suck your thumb. Ultra sound shows that during sleep you were experiencing Rapid Eye Movement, which means that you were dreaming even before you were born.

The Human Body

Human beings are exhibit “A” to the great power and wisdom of God. He made you in His image and in His likeness. In Psalms 139:14 the Bible says,

“You are fearfully and wonderfully made.”

The human body is for all practical purposes infinitely more complex and efficient than anything ever built by man. You name it: a Cray super-computer, the Space Shuttle, an atomic reactor; these systems are simple and inefficient when compared to the human body.

An adult body consists of: 100 trillion cells, 206 bones, 600 muscles, and 22 internal organs. The largest organ is your skin. Every square inch that covers your body is made up of about 19 million skin cells. Approximately 1 billion cells are replaced every hour as your DNA transmits coded information to new cells. Your body completely regenerates itself every 7 years!

The human brain is made up of 12 trillion cells. Each cell connects to 10,000 other cells, making 120 trillion connections − more than all the telephone systems in the world combined. The brain sends and receives information to and from the cells through the nervous system instantaneously.

The smell of a flower, a kind word, a walk in the park with a friend, a Christmas gift, your earliest childhood memories, everything you have ever experienced is stored in your brain. By contrast, the fastest supercomputer in the world costs $100,000,000, is as large as a 6,000 square foot house, and still cannot produce one original thought!

The human eye has more than 137,000,000 light sensitive cells, which translate coded information instantaneously through your nervous system and the brain sees! Your eyes can communicate your emotions and are said to be the windows of your soul. Scientists estimate that the muscles in your eyes make more than 100,000 movements a day.

Your blood circulates through more than 60,000 miles of arteries, veins, and capillaries (enough to go around the world almost 3 times), and completes the cycle 1,000 times a day. That comes to 60,000,000 a day! The human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times in an average lifetime.

There are about 10,000 taste buds on the surface of your tongue and on the roof of your mouth that make eating so enjoyable. The digestive system then breaks down the food into smaller molecules, extracts the nutrients which are then absorbed into the blood. The blood delivers the nutrients to the cells throughout the body and gives us energy.

The muscular system is made of more than 630 muscles divided into two groups–voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary muscles only work when you tell them to. When you play the piano or swing a bat. Or, when you close your eyes, bend over and smell the aroma of a freshly baked loaf of bread. Involuntary movements include your heart-beat, the blinking of your eyes, and the movement of your diaphragm so you breathe without even thinking about it!

More than 30 facial muscles cause your face to reflect how you feel and what you’re thinking. Muscles cause you to smile, to frown, to create looks of surprise, happiness, sadness, confusion, anger, joy, wonder, and every other emotion you can think of.

The cardiovascular system, the respiratory and circulatory systems, the nervous system, the skeletal and muscular systems, the reproductive system, the digestive system, the immune system, and the 5 senses are marvels of wisdom and ingenuity far beyond the ability of man to design and build.

And talk about energy efficiency? The whole system runs on bread and water! To look at these extremely complex systems and conclude that the human body is the product of mindless coincidence or blind chance is not science.

In the same sense, the Sistine Chapel is proof positive there was a Michael Angelo. The Mona Lisa proves there was a Leonardo Da Vinci. And there had to be a Beethoven to write the 5th Symphony. Even though none of us have ever actually seen these men, the creation of their work proves the creator. There is not a judge or jury in the world who would disagree with that evidence.

1. The prophets foretold His coming.

The Old Testament prophesied His coming in stunningly detailed predictions. Scholars tell us there are some 300 Messianic prophecies with reference to the coming of Christ as the Savior of the world. This would include but not be limited to: His lineage, His birthplace, the time, His purpose, His sacrificial death for sin, how He would die, His resurrection and many more details, hundreds and even thousands of years in advance! There is no other person in history that can make such a claim. Why such a grand entrance? So you can know you’ve got the right God! Imposters abound.

2. He would be born of a virgin.

In the book of Isaiah 7:14, (written 750 years before the blessed event) under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, Isaiah wrote,

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”

In this case, “Immanuel” was actually a title which meant, “God with us.” The same idea is found in Revelation 19:16,

“And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

“King of Kings and Lord of Lords” is a title rather than a name.

3. This child would be God in a human body. In Isaiah 9:6 we read,

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of {His} government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”

In Colossians 1:15 the Bible says,

“And He (Jesus) is the image (the physical manifestation) of the invisible God, the first-born (a Hebrew idiom meaning pre-eminent) of all creation. For by Him all things were created, {both} in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Then in John 1:1 God’s Word says,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

And in verse 14 of the same chapter we find this,

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

4. The place of His birth.

The prophet Micah, writing 500 years before the fact, eliminated all the cities of the world and said the Messiah would not only be born in Bethlehem but also speaks of His pre-existence!

“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, {too} little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.”

5. His Sinless Life.

Is there anyone else in history who claimed to be without sin? Jesus did! This claim was also made by His closest friends, relatives and by His most bitter enemies.

Peter said, “He committed no sin” (I Peter 2:22) and John said, “In Him is no sin” (I John 3:5). Judas said, “I have betrayed innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4). Pilate said, “I find in Him no fault at all” (John 18:38). The thief on the cross said, “This man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41). Paul said, “He knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus said concerning Himself, “Which one of you convicts me of sin?” (John 8:46). Jesus also said, “The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:29). He was the Lamb of God without spot or blemish (1 Peter 1:19).

Jesus Christ is the only person in the history of the world who lived a perfectly sinless life!

6. His unparalleled teaching.

Truly, no man has ever spoken such words of love, wisdom, or life changing power before or since Jesus. His words are incomparably superior to those of any other prophet, priest or king. Ray Comfort put it this way:

No politician, prophet, priest, pastor, pope, or any person in history has ever come even slightly near making such incredible claims like those made by Jesus of Nazareth.
Even if they had made such wild assertions, none could back up these claims for a moment.
Jesus spoke these words, and they will come to pass. Read them with a sober heart and with widened eyes:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth— those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:24-29).
To understand His teaching you would have to read the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of John. That is beyond the scope of this article. But, you can read His “Sermon on the Mount” at the end of this article. That should be enough to convince any honest seeker of truth. No one even comes close to speaking the Jesus spoke.

The Bible tells the story of when the religious leaders of the day sent the temple guards to arrest Jesus. They returned without Him. Here is what they had to say after hearing Him speak from John 7:45-46,

“The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, ‘Why did you not bring Him?’ The officers answered, ‘Never did a man speak the way this man speaks.’”

In the Sermon on the Mount (recorded in Matthew 5-7) we have an example of the kind of teaching that not only separated Jesus from all the rest, but has changed the hardest hearts of some of the most infamous people in history. You can read His sermon at the bottom of this page!

7. His death by crucifixion.

Psalms 22 was written 1,000 years before crucifixion was invented by the Romans. Verses 16-18 provide a vivid description of exactly what happened on that fateful day,

“For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

Now compare that to John 19:23-24,

“The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and {also} the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. They said therefore to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, {to decide} whose it shall be”; that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “They divided My outer garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.”

8. His death would be the payment for sin.

When Adam and Eve sinned, an animal was killed to cover their shame.

Then we read of Cain who offered a sacrifice from a garden and Able brought a blood sacrifice. One was accepted, one was rejected.

The angel of death passed over the Israelites in Egypt by the blood of a lamb.

God is trying to tell us something. These are prophetic object lessons on how God can forgive sin without compromising His justice.In Leviticus 1-17, God instructed Moses how and why to begin the sacrificial system. A sacrifice was needed to atone for sin. Leviticus and Hebrews teach,

“Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.”

Symbolic of sinless perfection, the sacrifice had to be perfect, without spot or blemish. Since the penalty for sin is death (all men die because all men sin) in order for a savior to save you, he would have to be sinless and die for you (death means eternal separation). If you come to God without a blood sacrifice, your own life is required!

This is how God legally forgives sin without compromising His justice. Justice and mercy were reconciled when Christ (Messiah) died on the cross. Three days later, Jesus took authority over sin and death when He raised Himself from the dead—by His own power!

The sacrificial system provided the world with 1,500 years of literal, historical, and theological context, so when Jesus died on the cross, this would all make sense. That is why when John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The sacrificial system ended when Jesus fulfilled this prophetic picture of salvation. He satisfied God’s perfect justice (the law of sin and death) once and for all!

The entire chapter of Isaiah 53 (written 750 BC) speaks of His atoning death.

9. His resurrection.

“For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption (Ps. 16:10).”

The following quote is one of the most compelling legal arguments ever offered on the validity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“Simon Greenleaf was the famous Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University and succeeded Justice Joseph Story as the Dane Professor of Law in the same university, upon Story’s death. H. W. H. Knott says of this great authority in jurisprudence: “To the efforts of Story and Greenleaf is to be ascribed the rise of the Harvard Law School to its eminent position among the legal schools of the United States.”

“While still a Professor of Law at Harvard University, Greenleaf produced a famous work entitled: A Treatise on the Law of Evidence which is still considered the greatest single authority on evidence in the entire literature of legal procedure.”

“Greenleaf also wrote a volume entitled: An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice. What you are about to read is the opinion of one of the world’s foremost leading authorities on what constitutes good evidence in a court of law concerning the Apostles claim that Jesus was actually resurrected from the dead,

“The great truths which the apostles declared were that Christ had risen from the dead, and that only through repentance from sin and faith in Him, could men hope for salvation. This doctrine they asserted with one voice, everywhere, not only under the greatest discouragements, but in the face of the most appalling errors that can be presented to the mind of man. Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public tribunal.

His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world. The laws of every country were against the teachings of His disciples. The interests and passions of all the rulers and great men in the world were against them. The fashion of the world was against them.

Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments, and cruel deaths. Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, rejoicing.

As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage.

They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted; and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most melancholy and terrific frequency.

It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead.”

10. His influence for the last 2,000 years.

“Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:7).”

Malcomb Muggeridge…

“We look back upon history and what do we see? Empires rising and falling, revolutions and counter-revolutions, wealth accumulating and wealth dispersed, one nation dominant and then another. Shakespeare speaks of ‘the rise and fall of great ones that ebb and flow with the moon.’ “I look back on my own fellow countrymen ruling over a quarter of the world, the great majority of them convinced, in the words of what is still a favorite song, that, ‘God who’s made the mighty, would make them mightier yet.’

I’ve heard a crazed, cracked Austrian announce to the world the establishment of a German Reich that would last a thousand years; an Italian clown announce that he would restart the calendar to begin his own ascension to power. I’ve heard a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as a wiser than Solomon, more humane than Marcus Aurelius, more enlightened than Ashoka.

“I’ve seen America wealthier and in terms of weaponry, more powerful than the rest of the world put together, so that had the American people desired, could have outdone an Alexander or a Julius Caesar in the range and scale of their conquests. All in one lifetime, all in one lifetime, all gone with the wind.

England, part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy. Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy. Stalin, a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominate for some three decades. America, haunted by fears of running out of those precious fluids that keep her motorways roaring, and the smog settling, with troubled memories of a disastrous campaign in Vietnam, and the victories of the Don Quixotes of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate. All in one lifetime, all gone, gone with the wind.

Behind the debris of these self-styled, sullen supermen and imperial diplomats, there stands the gigantic figure of one person, because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom alone mankind might still have hope, the person of Jesus Christ.”

11. Essay’s on Christ.

The life of Christ

“This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science and learning, He shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, He spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, He set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise, than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.” -Philip Schaff

The famous essay, One Solitary Life

“Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executors gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth—His coat. When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.”

“Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever were built, all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.”

The Incomparable Christ

“More than nineteen hundred years ago there was a Man born contrary to the laws of life. This Man lived in poverty and was reared in obscurity. He did not travel extensively. Only once did He cross the boundary of the country in which He lived; that was during His exile in childhood.”

“He possessed neither wealth nor influence. His relatives were inconspicuous and had neither training nor formal education. In infancy He startled a king; in childhood He puzzled doctors; in manhood He ruled the course of nature, walked upon the billows as if pavements, and hushed the sea to sleep. He healed the multitudes without medicine and made no charge for His service.”

“He never wrote a book, and yet all the libraries of the country could not hold the books that have been written about Him. He never wrote a song, and yet He has furnished the theme for more songs than all the song writers combined.”

“He never founded a college, but all the schools put together cannot boast of having as many students. He never marshaled an army, nor drafted a soldier, nor fired a gun; and yet no leader ever had more volunteers who have, under His orders, made more rebels stack arms and surrender without a shot fired.”

“He never practiced psychiatry, and yet He healed more broken hearts than all the doctors far and near. Once each week the wheels of commerce cease their turning and multitudes wend their way to worshipping assemblies to pay homage and respect to Him.”

“The names of the past proud statesmen of Greece and Rome have come and gone. The names of the past scientists, philosophers, and theologians have come and gone; but the name of this Man abounds more and more. Though time has spread nineteen hundred years between the people of this generation and the scene of His crucifixion, yet He still lives. Herod could not destroy Him, and the grave could not hold Him.”

“He stands forth upon the highest pinnacle of heavenly glory, proclaimed of God, acknowledged by angels, adored by saints, and feared by devils, as the living, personal Christ, our Lord and Savior.”

Napoleon

“Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man towards the unseen that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across the chasm of eighteen hundred years Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy. He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself; He demands it unconditionally, and forthwith His demand is granted. Its powers and faculties become an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him experience that supernatural love towards Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man’s creative powers. Time, the great destroyer can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range.”

12. Christianity is based on Christ.

Virtually all other religions are based on the philosophies of their founders. Islam is based on the teaching of one man Mohammed. Buddhism is based on the philosophy of Buddha. Confucianism is based on the beliefs of Confucius, and so it goes. Christianity is based not only on the teaching of Jesus, but on Christ Himself.

If you take Mohammed out of Islam, the basic tenants of Islam would not change. You don’t need Mohammed in any personal way to be a Muslim. If you take Buddha out of Buddhism, the teachings of Buddha remain the same. If you take Confucius out of Confucianism, they will be just as confused as they were before. But if you take Christ out of Christianity there is nothing left.

13. The Ultimate Demonstration of Love

The most profound demonstration of God’s love for mankind is revealed in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was His sacrifice that made atonement for sin and provided redemption not only for man, but for the universe itself. Yes, even the universe is dying. Physicists call it the Second Law of Thermal Dynamics. Theologians know what it’s called and what causes it; it’s called sin. The Bible says that God is going to let sin run its course. After that, He will create new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells-forever!

The cross of Christ represents the defining moment in the history of mankind. Jesus had such a profound impact on the world by what He said and by what He did that the world marks time before His birth and after His death. We live in the 21st century “A.D”. That is Latin for Anno Domini which means “In the year of the Lord”. The reason the world marks time by the birth and death of Jesus is because three days after He was crucified, He raised Himself from the dead! No one ever did that before or since.

I’m not so amazed that Jesus raised Himself from the dead. I’m more amazed that He could have died in the first place! Death is the result of sin. That is why all men die, no matter how they die. But Jesus was sinless. How could He have died? The answer is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21,

“He made Him who knew no sin {to be} sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Christ died all right—He took on the sins of the whole world, past, present and future! That is how God can legally forgive us without compromising His justice. Someone else paid the price for you!

According to the New Testament, repentance and believing in the deity of Jesus is what constitutes salvation. In John 8:26 Jesus said,

“… you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am (He) you shall die in your sins.”

John 1:1 and Colossians 1:17 state that Jesus was God manifested in human flesh, eternal and not created. Anyone can say that he or she is a prophet, anyone can say, “I am God” but proving it is much more difficult. There are seven “I am” sayings of Jesus in the New Testament. Each is a clear reference to Exodus 3:14 when God revealed His name to Moses: “I am, that I am, tell them I am.” So, when Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” the Pharisees knew exactly what He meant, and they wanted to stone Him for claiming to be God (John 8:58, 59; 10:30,3 1)!

Anyone can “say” they are God. Jesus did things only God could do!

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world”. But, He did not just say, “I am the light of the world,” He said, “I am the light of the world” and He gave sight to a man born blind!

He said, “I am the bread of life.” But He did not just say, “I Am the bread of life,” He said, “I Am the bread of life”, and He fed 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish!

He did not just say, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He said, “I am the resurrection and the life” and He raised Lazarus (and many others) from the dead!

Each of the “I Am” sayings was accompanied by a miracle, which in turn revealed His deity. The one miracle He performed more than any other was that of giving sight to the blind. In Exodus 4:11, God is speaking to Moses, “And the LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes {him} dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?’”

The “I Am” sayings show that Jesus not only claimed to be God, but offered empirical proof of being the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Redeemer of mankind. He proved His verbal claims with literal miracles.

Jesus said, “Peace be still and the winds and the sea obeyed Him!” He said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it.” He was speaking of the temple of His body!

Jesus claimed to be God. He not only said He was God (anyone can say that), He offered proof of His claim by doing things only God could do. If God came to earth as a man, you would expect Him to say and do things that would clearly distinguish Him from all other men. Jesus did!

14. The exclusive and exhaustive definition of love

Another outstanding basis for proof that the Bible is divinely inspired is its unparalleled teaching on love. How is this proof of divinity? We are social creatures. God made us that way. Man’s greatest need is to love and be loved. The Bible reveals the most comprehensive teaching on love that there is.

The word love is used, defined, explained, exemplified, proved and illustrated almost 300 times in the Bible. The number of times the word is used is not the point. The fact is, you cannot find a more comprehensive teaching on love in any other religion, philosophy or system of thought. Not even close. Love is more than an emotion, it’s proactive and it’s powerful enough to soften the hardest heart when nothing else will.

You will not find a greater explanation of love than in 1 Cor. 13:1-8. And in Romans 13:8-10.

In Christianity, it is God’s love (not the threat of violence, or the claim to the eloquence of its literature in a foreign language) that draws us to Christ. Our relationship with God is based on faith, hope and love.

If everyone loved God and loved their neighbors as themselves we would live in a perfect world! The opposite of love is not just hate, it’s also selfishness. For God so loved the world He gave!

Man (without God) is inherently selfish. Selfishness is the essence of sin and giving is the essence of love. Man will never solve his own problems because man is the problem.

The greatest commandment in the Bible is to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40). God is love (1 John 4:8). For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

To love God you must love your brother (1 John 4:20). If you mistreat your wife your prayers are hindered (1 Peter 3:7). Love is defined (1 Corinthians 13: 1-8). We are obligated to Love (Romans 13:1-8). Sacrificial love is the key to a happy marriage (Ephesians 5:25). There is no greater love than to sacrifice your life to save a friend (John 15:13). Love is the distinguishing mark of the Christian (John 13:35). True love is unconditional (Luke 6:32). Love includes your enemies (Luke 6:27). Love is the greatest spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 13: 13). Obedience to God is based on love (John 14:15).

15. The Love of Jesus
No one has ever taken love to the level Jesus did. It was Christ who said, “Love your enemies.” But He didn’t just say, “Love your enemies.” He said, “Love your enemies”, and while He hung on the cross, in unimaginable pain from the top of His head to the tip of His toes, He prayed, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” No mere man has ever loved like that.

This love was so profound, so completely antithetical to human nature, the thief on his right recognized His divinity, and said, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus replied, “This day you shall be with Me in Paradise.” No one could make up such stories and expect anyone to believe them.

The teaching of Jesus could not have been more antithetical to the Roman Empire’s idea of justice. In Matthew 5:44 Jesus said,

“I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. If you only love those who love you, what reward do you have?”

It is said that the Mafia love their family members but kill their enemies. Jesus is saying in essence, “If you love only those who love you how are you any different than the Mafia?”

When His enemies nailed Him to the cross, Jesus was naked and in unimaginable pain from head to toe. His accusers laughed, mocked, ridiculed, and spat at Him. Amazingly, 700 years earlier, Isaiah 53 prophesied that the Messiah would be despised, rejected, and crushed for the sin of the world.

The Roman soldiers were throwing dice at the foot of the cross to see who would keep His clothes. It was in that horrible humiliation and searing pain that Jesus prayed,

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

This concern for other people in the pain of death was so profound, so completely antithetical to human nature, the thief on his right (also being crucified) had a revelation— Jesus truly was divine. This dying man then cried out to Jesus,

“Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

And Jesus replied,

“This day you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

Who could make up such story and expect anyone to believe it? Where else can you find a more compelling or authoritative demonstration of love in all of history? No mere man could have expressed such selfless love and concern for the eternal destiny of the very people who were responsible for His suffering. You will not find this kind of sacrificial love in any other religion, philosophy or system of thought.

AS C.S. LEWIS SO ELOQUENTLY POINTED OUT, JESUS’ CLAIM TO DIVINITY LEAVES YOU WITH ONLY THREE OPTIONS:

He was a liar
He was a lunatic
He was who He claimed to be!
That is the problem that all other religions must answer and cannot. They all say that Jesus was a great moral teacher, or, a great prophet. But that is the one thing you cannot say, He has not left that alternative open to us–He did not intend to.

CAN A PROPHET LIE?

I will never forget the story that one well known evangelist shared on one of his radio programs. He was invited to a Islamic country to debate a Muslim scholar. When asked to present his passport to the customs officer, the man asked, “For what purpose do you want to enter my country; what is your business?”

He answered, “I am a Christian evangelist. I have been invited here for a debate.”

The man said, “Sir, I would like to ask you one question. “What do you think of Mohammed?” The whole room became dead silent as all the other customs officials turned to hear his answer.

He answered with a question, “Sir, I would like to ask you a question, “Can a prophet lie?”

The officer thought for a moment, and answered, “No, a prophet cannot lie.”

The evangelist asked, “Mohammed was a prophet?”

Answer, “Yes.”

Question, “Mohammed said Jesus was a prophet?”

Answer, “Yes.”

“Jesus said He was God. If Jesus was right, Mohammed was wrong. And, if Jesus was wrong, Mohammed was still wrong because Mohammed said Jesus was right!”

The man stamped his passport and said, “Get out of here!”

Compare the words of Jesus to other so-called religious leaders…
Buddha said, “I am a teacher in search of truth.
Jesus said, “I am the truth.”

Confucius said, “I never claimed to be holy.”
Jesus said, “Which one of you convicts Me of sin?”

Mohammed said, “I do not know what Allah will do to me.”
Jesus said, “I Am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me. though he die, yet shall he live.”

None of these other men ever claimed to be God. They all said God is this way, go this way.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father but by Me.”

Jesus is not just our redeemer, He is our redemption. Jesus is not just our savior, He is our salvation. Jesus does not just teach us how to be sanctified, He is our sanctification!

Since all other religions are merely the opinions of men, they are subjective, and no matter how appealing their teaching may be to our felt needs, or how one may be pressured by culture to accept these religions as true, that does not make them right. Jesus speaks without hypocrisy.

No man ever spoke like Jesus before or since

Matthew Chapter 5

And when He saw the multitudes, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And opening His mouth He {began} to teach them, saying,

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when {men} cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me.

“Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty {again} It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. 2

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. “Nor do {men} light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house.

“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.

“For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.

“Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches {them,} he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

“For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses {that} of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.

“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’

“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty {enough to go} into the fiery hell.

“If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

“Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.

“Truly I say to you, you shall not come out of there, until you have paid up the last cent.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

“And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

“And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to go into hell. 3

“And it was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for {the} cause of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

“Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. “Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ {or} ‘No, no’; and anything beyond these is of evil.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ “But I say to you, do not resist him who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.

“And if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. “And whoever shall force you to go one mile, go with him two.

“Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on {the} evil and {the} good, and sends rain on {the} righteous and {the} unrighteous.

“For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? “And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more {than others} Do not even the Gentiles do the same? “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Chapter 6

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

“When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

“But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

“But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.

“Therefore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him.

“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. ‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. ‘Give us this day our daily bread. ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.’”

“For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. “But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

“And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites {do,} for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

“But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

“The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (material wealth).

“For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, {as to} what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, {as to} what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?

“Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and {yet} your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

“And which of you by being anxious can add a {single} cubit to his life’s span?

“And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these.

“But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is {alive} today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, {will He} not much more {do so for} you, O men of little faith?

“Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?’

“For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.

“Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. {Each} day has enough trouble of its own.

Chapter 7

“Do not judge lest you be judged.

“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

“And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.

“For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened.

“Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone?

“Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

“Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.

“For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn {bushes,} nor figs from thistles, are they?”

“Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.”

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.

“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’

“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock.

“And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and {yet} it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock.

“And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.

“And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall.”

The result was that when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as {one} having authority, and not as their scribes.”

As the french skeptic Ernest Renan admitted,

“It would take a Jesus to forge a Jesus, and if it is true that what we have in the Bible is a giant forgery, then let us worship the individual who was so brilliant as to think up a picture of a person like Jesus of Nazareth and the story of the Word of God.”

James T. Fisher from: A Few Buttons Missing: The Case Book of a Psychiatrist:

“If you were to take the sum total of all authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified of psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene, if you were to combine them and refine them and cleave out all the excess verbiage, if you were to take the whole of the meat and none of the parsley, and if you were to have these unadulterated bits of scientific knowledge concisely expressed by the most capable of living poets, you would have an awkward and incomplete summary of the Sermon on the Mount. And it would suffer immeasurably by comparison.”

The Koran is about submission and dominance.

“I’ve recently finished reading the Qur’an. The Qur’an doesn’t hold a candle to the Bible for literary value; that’s for sure! I wasn’t looking for the word, “love”, but now that you mention it, I don’t recall it either. I went to the online Koran and did a search for the word, “love”. It returned NO references at all. Check out the URL link in the source list, below, if you’d like to see for yourself:

“The central theme or message (by word-count) of the Qur’an is an obsession with believers, non-believers, unbelievers, disbelievers, misbelievers and ex-believers. There doesn’t appear to be a single page that doesn’t exhort believers to believe or disparage non-believers for not believing. It’s truly unrelenting! If you were to remove all the text exhorting believers and threatening disbelievers, there wouldn’t be much left of the Qur’an.

“As the second-largest religion in the world, I anticipated that Islam’s Qur’an would be a great book, like the Bible. But instead of a great literary epic, it’s more like a nagging father preaching the same limited things over and over and over . . . I waited for SOMETHING of spiritual value, something transcendent or inspiring, but found nothing noteworthy. Instead of the “religion of peace” I keep hearing about, the Qur’an paints a religion of submission and dominance. It seems neurotically and unapologetically insecure because of its obsession with believers versus non-believers.

“The extremity of violence in the Qur’an doesn’t really exceed that found in the Torah (Old Testament) but violence is emphasized a whole lot more; taking up a higher percentage of text.

“Muhammad repeatedly retells the stories of Noah, Abraham, Lot, Moses and Jesus (among others), giving those stories his own interpretation. It’s interesting how crudely he synopsizes the stories: it’s as if he’s retelling, from memory, stories that he’s heard – NOT stories that he’s studied and can easily reference from a Bible sitting on his table. The assertion that Muhammad was illiterate seems plausible to me, based on the crudeness of the writing in the Qur’an. I’m told the Qur’an is supposed to be heard, out loud, in Arabic. The recitation is allegedly rhythmic and music to the ears. Maybe so . . . but the contents of the words is what matters to me; they’re pedestrian and uninspired, at best.

“Some claim that Muhammad was illiterate but wrote the Qur’an via divine inspiration or divine writing. Historians say that Muhammad’s followers recorded his every move and every word. Long after Muhammad was dead, these writings were collected (along with oral tradition?) and assembled into the Qur’an. Even if Muhammad did not personally write those crudely paraphrased biblical stories, they are allegedly his words recorded by his followers.

“According to the Qur’an, as followers of Abraham, Jews and Christians are “People of the Book” (dhimmi). They are relatively lucky: as Muslims wage Jihad on the world, the conquered subjects are forced to convert to Islam or die unless they’re People of the Book. These lucky souls get an exemption but must pay dearly for it . . . with their liberties and their pocketbooks. It’s interesting to note – and very telling – that ex-Muslims are the most cursed of all people. Apostasy earns you the death penalty; a sentence that’s still carried out to this very day, particularly if you’re public about it. Many ex-Muslims, for fear of execution, are currently living in hiding; exiled to more tolerant countries where they can live anonymously. How’s that for a “peaceful” religion? Ridiculous! Sounds more like the mafia and the FBI’s Witness Protection Program to me!

“The death sentence for apostasy is indicative of the neurotically insecure preaching of the Qur’an. The Qur’an actively encourages and enforces fundamentalism at every opportunity. The Qur’an is “obvious truth” and disbelievers are willfully mocking Allah. Believers need to keep away from disbelievers for fear of being led astray. Only believers have the truth and the rest are following obvious lies.

“To me, a sure sign of religious fundamentalism is ridiculously ignorant arguments in defense of one’s religion. The new Creation Museum, in Kentucky, is a Christian example. On Yahoo answers, I read postings from Muslims that are obviously rehashed Islamic propaganda. Stupid stuff like: Muhammad knew about quantum physics (it’s in the Qur’an!) and evolution is proof of Allah’s grand design, etc. The arguments ignore large bodies of contradictory evidence and common sense. And forget about disputing anything they say . . . they’ll just quote scripture and brand you as a disbeliever who will eventually suffer Allah’s wrath.

“In the Qur’an, Muhammad frequently boasts of cities that disbelieved and met with grievous woe at the hands of Muhammad’s marauders. It’s a sign of Allah’s greatness that the cities were laid low. I’ve often heard that Islam is a religion of peace. Yes, there are verses that indicate the use of violence should be reserved for self-defense . . . but there’s much more which clearly indicate that being non-Muslim is all the excuse Muslims need to bring you glad tidings of grievous woe. That phrase, “glad tidings of grievous woe”, and its variants, crop up frequently in the Qur’an. It cracks me up every time. LOL, it’s my new catch-phrase.

“Something else that really struck me while reading the Qur’an is how Jihad is integral to Islam. The Islamist extremists and Jihadis are actually practicing what the Qur’an preaches. I’ve heard that there’s no such thing as moderate Muslims and I think that’s true because any Muslim worth his salt has to sympathize with militant Muslims, based solely on their commitment to Islamic Jihad. After all, Muhammad himself brought Allah’s wrath to his fellow Arabs – why not follow his example with non-Arabs?

“Take a look at what’s been happening in the world. Over the last century, Islam has spread to many countries. Fifty countries now have Muslim majorities. Everywhere they’ve spread, violence has followed. Their modus operandi is to populate an area then agitate, militate, and terrorize the region while demanding autonomy or outright rule. They organize and entrench so successfully that they always seem to get their way. Part of this strategy is to turn tolerance on it’s head. If you speak out or criticize Islam or Muslims, it’s your fault that you are killed for it. The world has learned that nothing is more effective than Muslim threats. The “free” press, for the most part (especially Europe), has been intimidated into silence.

“The ultimate goal of Islam is one world under Allah. The push for this ideal has had its ups and downs but if people don’t wake up and pay attention, they will one day find themselves living under Sharia law. It may already be too late for Europe. The U.S. and Israel may be the last bastions of independence from Muslim undermining and Jihad; that’s why we’re the most hated by the Islamic world. We need to stop bending over backwards for the Muslims. If EVERYBODY would read the Qur’an, public determination to face the very real threat of Jihad would be informed and boosted. I’m sure of it.”

From “Seeker.” Under how many times word love in Koran on the web.

When I read your experience with opening the Koran, I was reminded of this brilliant analysis and statistical work by Amber Pawlik and was not sure you had ever read it.

The following is the section in which she summarizes her statistical analysis:

Here are the results of my larger study:

106/201 (52.7%) is hatred aimed at infidels, defined as:

*Threats towards infidels either in the after life or this life

*Degrading infidels by calling them evil, stupid, blind, deaf, liars, thankless, etc.

*Calls to fight against them.

*Verses that say “except the believers” when wishing death on non believers were counted as hatred since avoiding death is not a positive to believers

*The threat or insult can be aimed at infidels in general or any specific infidel.

50/201 (24.9%) Deals with believers, defined as:

*Mentioning them

*Saying they are righteous

*Saying they will get good things

*Any mentions of one of the prophets was snuck into this category too

23/201 (11.4%) deal with Allah,

*Who he is

*That he is almighty

*Any of his creations

10/201 (5%) deal with the Day of Doom or the Day of Judgment

*Either the Day of Doom when destruction is sent on the earth or

*Day of Judgment when all are judged before Allah

*Any message pertaining to how God records what men do was assigned this category

4/201 (2%) are anti-woman

*That it’s OK to beat a woman

*Women and slaves get married off but have no choice in the matter and is very self-serving to Muhammad or men in general.

4/201 (2%) deal with giving to the poor in some way

2/201 (1%) deal with some kind of Muslim custom or etiquette, for instance

*How to divorce your wife

1/201 (0.5%)disapproves of a man who murdered someone, but only because it was for the wrong reason to kill someone.

1/201 (0.5%) actually says it is OK for people to have their religion while Muslims have theirs

Over 50% of the Koran deals with nothing but hatred aimed at infidels. You will notice Allah is mentioned a lot, as well as the goodness of believers and the Day of Doom/Judgment, the former being a day when the Koran gleefully exclaims that Allah will send destruction to the earth and destroy the infidels.

Notice how much of the Koran that deals with not just infidels but with the theme of believers verses non believers, setting up believers as holy, righteous, almost perfect human beings and non believers not just as wrong but as wretched scum. If you add up the number of verses that deal with infidels, believers, Allah, and the Day of Judgment/Doom, that percentage is a full 94%. This is really the only thing in the Koran as the Koran itself readily admits: “… This book is no other than a warning and a clear Koran, To warn whoever liveth; and, that against the Infidels sentence may be justly given.” Sura 36:69-70

You may notice that details outlining Muslim customs and etiquette do not take up much room in the Koran. In fact, Ramadan, from what I can tell, is only mentioned once in the Koran. You can see how seriously Muslims take Ramadan. Now imagine how seriously they take the rest of the 94% of the Koran.

There is no moral system outlined in the Koran—with the exception of allowing men to beat their wives, sleep with their slaves, and there is an occasional, “give to the poor.” There certainly is no unequivocal “Do not kill”; “Do not steal”; or “Do not lie,” let alone any other insight into how to behave properly as a human being. Most of the “moral” guidance given in the Koran is not a restraint on humans but permission to do what they want—mostly for men to do what they want.

From: View from the Right https://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/011050.html

What is the Truth About TM and Hinduism?

The Jehovah’s Witnesses came to my door. I had just finished reading Ron Rhodes excellent book titled: Reasoning from the Scriptures with Jehovah’s Witnesses. So, I was ready for them. They came to my door and introduced themselves as people from the Watchtower Society. My first words were, “Great, I do have some questions about the Bible. Maybe you can help me. Would you like to come in?” The lady got all excited, and waved to her husband to come in!

As they were entering, I said to my wife, “Honey, can you put on some tea, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are here!” She said, “O sure. Hi, come on in!” The lady sat down in front of me, and her husband Harold sat next to me. In less than 30 seconds the lady said, “Did you know that Jesus was actually the Archangel Michael?” At this point, I got excited and said, “Really? Wait a minute. Let me get my Bible!” I came back all ready, I sat down and said,

“Now, where does it say that in the Bible?”

A little disappointed and in a slightly apologetic tone, she said, “Well, it doesn’t actually say that in the Bible.” Now I expressed disappointment, and with a shrug, said, “Aww… how would you know that then?” The JW said, she was told by the Watchtower. The ultimate proof that Jesus was not an angel is found in Hebrews 1:6. Then, I took the initiative, and with the innocence of a child began to dismantle her “theology” by simply asking a few simple questions.

I said, “I’ve always been curious about John 1:1. How does read in your version?” She opened to the passage in the mistranslation they use and read:

In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God.

FYI: That little definite article “a” (for the Word was “a” God) is not in the Bible! So here is how you help the witness with question number two:

I asked, “So Jesus was a god?”

JW: “Yes.”

“Was Jesus a true God, or was he a false god?”

(I thank Ron Rhodes for this question).

JW: “Jesus was a true God!”

“So then Jesus was God!”

JW: “Oh no.”

Ÿ “But, you just said Jesus was a God. How many Gods are there?”

JW: “Well, there are many gods. Satan is the god of this world.”

“But are they true gods or false gods?”

JW: There is only one Almighty God, that is Jehovah!”

You have just scored a touchdown! And, you are in complete control of the situation. At this point, it’s the Angels one, and the devils nothing. And, its only the first round! The Jehovah’s Witness is back peddling, not having been trained how to answer this in Jehovah’s Witness school.

“Well, you just said, ‘Jesus was a god,’ and now you say ‘Jehovah is God.’ Then Jehovah’s Witnesses have more than one god. So, you are polytheists, right?”

At this point, you have nailed them with questions that they cannot answer. Do not let them off the hook on this issue. Continue pressing like a child would because this is a blatant contradiction. The deity of Christ is the most critical issue in Christianity (See John 8:21-24). They just said there is only one God, and their own Bible just said Jesus was a god, therefore, Jesus must be God! Many of them will walk away in frustration at this point. If they are still there, then, you can ask with gentleness:

“What do you mean by this?”

“I don’t think you are being honest. Do you?”

Ask their friend, too (they always come in twos).

As long as you are asking the questions, you are in complete control of the situation. The J.W. will try and go to another subject, but you must be gently insistent on getting the Witness to see that he is not being honest with you, with himself, with the text, or with God! Ask again, “If your organization is right, why can’t you answer these simple questions?”

Virtually every doctrine they teach can be answered more effectively, not with an answer, but with a question. This is what Jesus did when the false teachers tried to trap Him!

This is how the rest of our conversation went….

JW: “Jesus was not the eternal God but was a created being. Col. 1:15 says: “He is the firstborn over all creation.”

“Do you know how many brothers David had?”

JW: “Yes. I believe he had seven.”

“Do you know where he fit in the birth order?”

JW: “I believe he was the youngest!”

“Then how is it that Psalm 89 says that David was the firstborn if he was born last?”

JW: No answer.

“The answer is, the word firstborn was also used as a Hebrew idiom meaning pre-eminent.”

“Now we can go back to Col. 1:15 with the correct understanding.”

Col. 1:15-17: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

This verses actually says, Jesus is the physical manifestation of God, and Jesus created all things!

Then I asked….

“What happened to Jesus after He was crucified?”

J.W: “He was raised a spirit creature.”

“You mean he was not raised physically; he was like a ghost?”

JW: “Yes!”

“Do spirits have flesh and bones, and do they eat fish?”

JW: “No.”

Then how is it that at the end of Luke (after the resurrection) when the disciples saw Jesus, it says they were terrified and thought they saw a ghost, and Jesus said to them, “Look at my hands and my feet, touch me, and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have. And He ate a piece of a broiled fish?”

“How then can you say He was a spirit creature? Isn’t this the same mistake the disciples were making, when Jesus corrected them?”

JW: No answer.

Remember when Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” It says, He was speaking of the temple of His body?

“Do you know what the Greek word is that they translated body?” (The JW said, “No.” )

“The word is soma. Do you know what soma means? (The JW said, “No.” ) It means physical body!”

“How do you explain your teaching that Jesus did not rise from the dead physically when Jesus Himself said He did?”

At this point, the woman abruptly said, “We have to go.” I said, “But I still have more questions!” She said, “No, we have to go now. Come on, Harold!” And, like a complete wimp, her husband Harold said, “Yes, dear.”

As they were walking out I said, “Can we have your phone number, maybe we can do this again sometime?”

They did leave their phone number, but when we called them, they refused to come back for another “Bible study.”

This is all you have to do to show the JW they are very confused, and to plant the seed of truth about who Jesus really is in their hearts and minds.

Many Jehovah’s Witnesses will end the conversation long before you can take them this far. But, before they leave, if possible, please take them through the next sequence of questions. They have no concept of coming to Jesus for salvation. This way, you will have at least shown them the truth about Jesus, you will have planted the seed of eternal life in their heart. Your hands will be clean of their blood.

Show the Witness He Must Come to Jesus for Salvation!

Ask…Would you please read Matt. 1:21?

According to Matt. 1:21, why did Jesus come to earth?

According to Matt. 9:6, who has the power to forgive sin?

According to Rom. 3:23, how many of us have sinned?

According to Acts 4:12, to whom must we come for salvation?

Also see John 5:39-40, 8:24, and 10:27-30.

Since the wages of sin is death, then the only way a savior can save you is if He dies for you!

Make a follow up appointment with them. Show them the love of Christ. Pray for them and remember, we are His hands and His feet. We are to be vessels of compassion for Christ’s sake and for His glory.

How Can The Lord’s Prayer Change Your Life?

What is the Difference Between Christianity and Mormonism?

Comparing the Ten Commandments of the Bible to the commandments of Mohammed in the Koran!

Commandment #1: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.”

The word translated “LORD” in English is YHWH, in the original language of the Old Testament. It’s not a title, it’s a proper name. It literally means, “The eternal self-existent One;” The God who is, the God who was, and the God who always will be, from eternity past to eternity future, without beginning, and without end.

YHWH comes from the same root as Exodus 3:14 where God said of Himself to Moses, “I Am, that I Am, tell them, I Am sent you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.” This is the most holy and proper name of God.

More than 2,000 years after God personally revealed His proper name to Moses at Mt. Sinai, Mohammed is quoted in the Hadith as saying, “I have been commanded that I should fight these people till they bear witness that there is no god but Allah. When they do this, their blood and their property shall be safe with me except as Islam requires.” The name “Allah” is found nowhere in the original languages of the Bible.

Commandment #2: “You are not to worship or bow down to any created thing.”

The greatest act of worship in Islam is the required once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca. The highpoint is the ceremony at the religious shrine known as the Ka’aba. Muslims must run around the building counterclockwise seven times, and each time pause to kiss a black rock that supposedly fell from heaven!

Do you think kissing a rock in a religious ceremony is a an act of idolatry? We are not even to bow to any created thing, let alone kissing it!

Commandments #3: “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD in vain.”

Did you know Surah 53:19 says Allah has three daughters? Why does the Koran say, “God forbid that Allah should have a son,” and then say he has three daughters?

Will Durant in his classic, The story of Civilization, writes, “Within the Ka’aba, in pre-Moslem days, were several idols representing gods. One was called Allah; three others were Allah’s daughters, al-uzza, al-Lat, and Al-Manat. We may judge the antiquity of this Arab pantheon from the mention of At-il-Lat by Herodotus [a fifth century B.C. Greek historian] as a major Arabian deity. The Quraish (Mohammed’s tribe) paved the way for monotheism by worshiping Allah as the chief god.”

Archaeological evidence uncovered in Arabia is overwhelming in demonstrating that the dominant pre-Islamic religion was the worship of the moon-god, Allah. Mohammed simply eliminated the other 359 deities, including Allah’s daughters referred to in Surah 53:19. That is why you see the crescent moon on the Islamic flag and above Islamic temples.” The God of the Bible is not the god of the moon, He is the Creator of the moon! To refer to a pagan deity as God is to disobey commandments 1, 2, and 3.

Commandment #4: “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.”

Originally on Saturday, it was changed to Sunday to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. True believers rest in the finished work of Christ who sacrificed Himself to pay for the sins of the world. Muslims worship on Friday.

Commandment #5: “Honor your father and your mother.”

In Sura 4:38, the Koran says, “Men are superior to women,” and gives men permission to “remove them unto their beds, and beat them…” In 1 Peter 3:7, the Bible says, “You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”

In Eph. 5:28-29 the Bible also says, “So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church.”

Following the Koran, regarding the physical abuse of women, disobeys Commandment #5, that women are to be honored, and are of equal value with men in the sight of God. Jesus said: “Whatever you do to the least of these my brethren, you do to Me.”

Commandment #6: “Thou shalt not murder.”

There are 123 verses in the Koran that call for fighting and killing anyone who does not believe this statement, “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet.” Jews and Christians are specifically named and targeted as “infidels.”

Sura 5:37 says, “…they (the infidels) shall be slain or crucified, or have their hands and feet cut off.” Sura 9:5 says, “Wage war against the infidels, as are your neighbors…” and in 47:3-9, a Muslim who cuts off the head of an “unbeliever” is promised paradise!

Ironically, Sura 2:256 says, “Let there be no compulsion in religion.” And what awaits the men who are admitted to Paradise? Wine and women! Two things that are forbidden as sin in this life in the Koran! What do the women get? Sadly, no one knows.

Commandment #7: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”

In Matthew 5:28 Jesus said, “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” In 19:5 Jesus (quoting Moses) said, “…. a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.” The grammar is clear—one man has one wife.

But, in Sura 4:2, the Koran says,

“….of other women who seem good in your eyes, marry two, or three, or four; and if ye still fear that ye shall not act equitably, then one only; or the slaves you have acquired.”

When God gave Moses the 10 commandments (1,500 B.C.) pagan religions celebrated sexual immorality as a form of worship to their gods. The Canaanites and the Babylonians worshiped Baal, which included temple prostitution. The Greeks and Romans also had their own forms of “sanctified prostitution.”

The doctrine of marital fidelity is a foreign concept to all man-made religions. The Judeo-Christian worldview alone teaches that human sexuality is sacred. It is sacred (holy) because it began in the mind of God.

Islam teaches that a man can have 4 wives and numerous concubines. Mohammed, the founder of Islam had 11 wives. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism had 33 wives.

Nature itself proves that the doctrine of polygamy cannot be divinely inspired since the ratio of men to women has always been 50/50. If there were four (or more) women to every man in the world, this doctrine might not be so obviously false.

The Koran goes on to say that the owner of any female slave can sell her into prostitution or rape her anytime he wants to and Allah will forgive him! Don’t believe it? Sura 24:33 says,

“Force not your female slave into sin in order that you may enrich yourselves in this world, if they wish to preserve their modesty. Yet if any of you do compel them, afterward, God will forgive you.”

This is a classic example of “Doublespeak.” That is, language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words or phrases.

Commandment #8: “Thou shalt not steal.” Yet in Sura 24:29 the Koran says, “There shall be no harm in your entering houses in which no one dwells, for the supply of your needs.” In other words, as long as no one is home, go in and take whatever you need!

Commandment #9: “Thou shalt not lie.” But in Sura 5:91 the Koran says, “God will not punish you for a mistake in your oaths, but he will punish you for an oath taken seriously.” The word “oath” means: a solemn appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed. In Matthew 5: 33-37 Jesus said, “But I say to you, make no oath at all, … let your yes be yes and your no be no; anything beyond this is of evil.”

Commandment #10: “Thou shalt not covet.” To covet is to desire something that belongs to someone else, or something forbidden. That is what wars are made of.

Stated positively, the Ten Commandments can be summed up in two: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. James 2 calls it, “the perfect law of liberty!”

Muslims are told if your good works outweigh your bad works Allah may have mercy on you. Romans 3:20 says, “For by the deeds of the law no man will be justified in His sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” The law was not given to show us how to save ourselves, but that we have offended an infinitely holy God and need to be saved!

When Adam and Eve sinned, an animal was killed to cover their shame. Cain offered a sacrifice from a garden and Able brought a blood sacrifice. One was accepted, one was rejected. The angel of death passed over the Israelites in Egypt by the blood of a lamb. God is trying to tell you something. These are prophetic object lessons on redemption from sin.

In Leviticus 1-17, God instructed Moses how and why to begin the sacrificial system. A sacrifice was needed to atone for sin. Leviticus says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” Symbolic of sinless perfection, the sacrifice had to be perfect, without spot or blemish. Since the penalty for sin is death (all men die because all men sin) in order for a savior to save you, he would have to be sinless and die for you (death means eternal separation). If you come to God without a blood sacrifice, your own life is required!

This is how God legally forgives sin without compromising His justice. Justice and mercy were reconciled when Christ (Messiah) died on the cross. Three days later, Jesus took authority over sin and death when He raised Himself from the dead—by His own power!

The sacrificial system provided the world with 1,500 years of literal, historical, and theological context, so when Jesus died on the cross, this would all make sense. That is why when John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The sacrificial system ended when Jesus fulfilled this prophetic picture of salvation. He satisfied God’s perfect justice (the law of sin and death) once and for all!

The Ark of the Covenant contains the Ten Commandments. The top of the Ark, called “The Mercy Seat,” symbolically covers the law we have broken (our sin). The high priest went into the Holy of Holies in the Temple where the Ark was housed, and sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the Mercy Seat—a complete picture of atonement for sin.

Simply stated, it’s because we have broken God’s law that we need His grace. How do you get saved from sin? Repent (change your mind and direction) and believe the Gospel. It’s found in 1 Cor. 15:3-4,

“…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Christianity is not a religion, it’s a revelation, and once you’ve had the revelation it leads you to a personal relationship with God based on love not law. God is a person and you can know Him. We love Him because He first loved us and gave Himself for us that we might become children of God. We call God “Our Father.” You can know God too!

In Deut. 4:29 God said, “You shall seek Me and you shall find Me when you seek me with all of your heart and all of your soul.” In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by Me.”

John 3:16 says,

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

BUT HOW CAN ONE GOD BE A TRINITY?

God created tri-unites all around us—creation is a reflection of our Creator. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity proved mathematically (math being a perfect science) that we live in a three dimensional world: Time, space, and matter (which is energy) –a trinity of trinities.

Time is a trinity: The past, the present, and the future. The past is not the present, the present is not the future, and the future is not the past. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each one is distinct.
Space: We live in a three-dimensional world: Height, width, and depth. Height is not width, width is not depth, depth is not height. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each one is distinct.
Matter is made up of atoms, and atoms have three basic components: protons, neutrons, and electrons. One is not the other, etc.
One molecule of water consists of three atoms—two hydrogen and one oxygen. Hydrogen by itself is flammable, and oxygen by itself is flammable. Combine them in a 2 to 1 ratio and you have a third substance which you can use to extinguish a fire! Can you rationally understand that? As you can see, whether or not you can rationally understand something does not preclude you from believing it. There are many more tri-unities all around us. Earth, wind, fire, light, and man (made in the image of God) are all triune and yet, one.

l Thess. 5:23 speaks of man’s spirit, soul, and body. Have you ever justified doing something in your mind, and afterwards your heart, beating faster than normal, said, “You shouldn’t have done that?” That is your spirit (conscience) speaking to your soul!

The human brain is the most complex thing known to science. Your brain houses the mind (intellect), the will, and the emotions. The mind is not the will, the will is not the emotions, and the emotions are not the intellect. One is not the other, all are part of the same, none can exist without the other, and yet each one is distinct!

As you can see, the Trinity is not an unfathomable, irrational contradiction. There are “trinities” all around us. In this light, there is no logical or theological reason whatsoever, that Almighty God cannot sit on the throne in heaven, come to Earth as a man, and fill the whole world with His Spirit—all at the same time. He’s God! When Job questioned God, God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth? Tell me if you have understanding!”

Interestingly, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity fit the Biblical account of creation perfectly. The very first verse in the Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.” In the beginning (that’s time), God created (that’s energy), the heavens (that’s space), and the Earth (that’s matter)!

The Bible predicts the future—absolute proof of divine inspiration!

God gave us all the proof we would ever need to know which one of the so-called “holy books” was the right one. The Bible is the only book ever written that reveals thousands of prophecies concerning great historic events written hundreds and even thousands of years before they occurred! Events like the virgin birth, the place and time of birth, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and much more. Another recurring theme throughout the Bible is the birth, the death, and the rebirth of the nation of Israel (something we can see).

In Ezekiel 36-39 (written 2,500 years ago) God revealed that the Jews would be exiled from Israel (because of their sin), the land would remain desolate for a long period of time, and in the latter days He would bring them back as a nation. He then says, “These things were written so that the nations may know that I am the LORD.”

In A.D. 70, the Roman army chased the Jews out of Israel, and they remained without a homeland for nearly 1,900 years. Then, on May 14th, 1948 they returned to establish a 2nd Jewish state, as promised by God.

According to Ph.D. astrophysicists and qualified scientists, the odds of the Bible’s more than 2,500 predictions being fulfilled by chance is one out of a number expressed as 1 with 2,000 zeros after it! According to the mathematical science of probability, if a number has more than 50 zeros after it, the odds of that happening by chance make it virtually impossible. Only someone with omniscience can predict the future with perfect accuracy.

The Koran says, God’s Word cannot be changed. Here is the truth about Ishmael and Isaac…

In Genesis 17:19-22, “God said: ‘No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”’

More than two thousand, six hundred years later, Mohammed claimed Ishmael, not Isaac, was the rightful heir, and therefore the land belongs to the Arabs. That is why Muslims believe they must destroy Israel and take the land. If Israel prevails (or even exists), they will be forced to the inescapable conclusion Allah is not the true God, Mohammed was not a prophet, and the Koran is false!

You can be wrong about a lot of things, but if you are wrong about the sacrifice of Jesus to atone for your sin, you are wrong enough to spend eternity separated from God. The real battle is not between Jews and Arabs, God loves them both; it’s between the forces of darkness and the Prince of Peace. The battle is for your soul (what you believe). Truth…

It wasn’t the nails that held Christ to the cross—it was His love for you!

How do you Kick the Sin Habit? 

Here are three foundational truths you must know to begin the journey of kicking the sin habit:

1. The Word of God (Living and written) is the ultimate and final authority when it comes to moral / spiritual truth (sin is a spiritual and a moral issue). 2 Tim. 3:16says,

1. Written:  “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

2. Living:  John 1:1-5, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. ”

a. Rev. 19:13-14, “He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.”

b. Matt. 1:21 “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

2. You have three enemies:

The world, the flesh and the devil. Romans 12:2; Romans 8:5; Revelation 12:9.

3. You have three allies:

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

• James 1:17  “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
• Matt 1:21 21  “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
• Acts 1:8  “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

God’s Word tells us there has been a battle raging for untold thousands of years between the forces of darkness and the Prince of Peace. The battle is for the soul of man. In this case, it’s yours!

What is sin? 1 John 3:4 says, “Sin is the transgression of the law (KJV)”.

The law that John is referring to is God’s moral law known as the Ten Commandments.

Rom 7:7, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’”

Why is sin a problem?

Isa 59:2, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.”

John 10:10,  “The thief (Satan) comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I (Jesus) have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. “

What are it’s consequences?

Prov 8:36, “But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul;  All those who hate me love death.”

Rom 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death (eternal seperation from God), but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Overcoming sin is a two-part process—God’s part and your part:

Key #1. God’s Part. Deliverance from the guilt (past), the power (present), and the condemnation (future) of sin is a work of grace. A work of grace is something only God can do.

In the New Testament the word “grace” is Khar’-ece. It speaks of the unmerited favor of God. But, it is much more than that.

Grace is the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; which produces an attitude of gratitude. Grace is defined as:

 1) Good will, loving-kindness and the favor of God. It refers to the merciful kindness of God by which He exerts His holy influence upon souls, turning them to Christ, keeping, strengthening and increasing them in Christian faith, knowledge and affection. It kindles in us the exercise of Christian virtue and moral excellence.

2) It is the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace.

Titus 2:11-14, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

Here is the Word of God on your deliverance:

Isa 43:11, “I, even I, am the Lord, And besides Me there is no savior.”

Matt 1:21 21,  “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Cor. 15:3-4, “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Eph 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

John 19:30 , “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

Key #2. Your Part. A work of grace is something only God can do, paradoxically, your part must be factored in. Deliverance from sin is something God does in you and through you.

  Romans 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any       longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were    buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should  walk in newness of life.

   Phil 2:13, “…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

Gal. 5:22-23   “…the fruit of the Spirit is self control.”

Mark 1:15 15,  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel.”

Repent means to change your mind, turn around and go the other way. Stop ignoring God and living as if He did not exist. In light of creation, no man will stand before God with any excuse for ignoring or denying Him (Romans 1:18-20). 

Sin begins in the mind as a thought (temptation). To be tempted is not sin. Even Jesus was tempted, yet He was without sin.  

James 1:14-15 says, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

Being drawn away speaks of being drawn away in your imagination.

Temptation crosses the line into sin when you realize what you are contemplating is sin and you continue to “entertain” or, dwell on those thoughts. That is when you begin to rationalize and justify committing a sinful act.

Here is a perfect example. There is a world of difference between seeing a woman and “looking” at her. In Matt 5:28, Jesus said,

“But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

You are the sovereign Lord over the universe of your mind and are expected to control your thoughts. 

Here is a foundational truth concerning your part in the equation of kicking the sin habit. 2 Cor. 10:4-5 4:

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

Your mind is not a garbage dump; it’s a temple.

God wants you to set your mind on things that are pure and holy. Why?  All sin begins as a thought. The same is true of goodness. 

The well-known motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar put it this way,

“You are what you are and you are where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You change what you are and you change where you are by changing what goes into your mind.”

In other words, you are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are.

Prov 23:7, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”

That is why God wants you to have a sanctified imagination. Your behavior (good or bad) is based on what you have allowed yourself to think and what you have chosen to believe.

Deut 30:19-20, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days.”

As the old saying goes,

“Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.”

Gal. 6:7-9, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

Here is the prayerful attitude we must adopt, it we are to be overcomers against the world, the flesh and the devil. Psalm 19:14:

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”

The great commandment is to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. 

The most normal, natural, sane, rational, intelligent thing you can do as a human being is to love the God who created you, the God who sustains you, and the God who purchased your salvation with His own blood! 

The most abnormal, unnatural, insane, irrational, unintelligent thing you can do is to live as if God does not exist.

Mark 8:35-38, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

How would you feel if the people you loved denied you even existed?

Prov 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. “

Put on the full armor of God also called the armor of light,

Key #3 You and God working together

This is seen perfectly in Gal. 5:22,

Here’s how it works…

Ps. 119:11:  “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.”

By value of prayer and meditating on the Word of God cannot be overstated. God’s truth shapes our character and guides our footsteps.

Ps 119:105, Thy word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”

The lamp shows me where I am. The light shows me where to go.

The Word of God is the foundation upon which your house must be built. Christ Himself demonstrated this principle of using the Word in spiritual warfare when He was tempted by the devil in Luke chapter four.

Prayer is not primarily the opportunity to improve your civil conveniences. It’s not about you changing God’s mind it’s about Him changing you.

Study the Lords prayer and it’s mostly about changing your perspective.  There are 68 words and 7 phrases.

The very first word is enough to keep most of us busy for a lifetime! It is not I butus. It is not me, it’s we. It is not yours or mine, it’s ours. The first word “Our” is clarion call to renounce selfishness. If God is your father then you are my brother. It’s more blessed to give than to receive, etc.

 As a general rule, the better you know the Word of God the better you know the God of the Word.

The principles and the promises of Joshua 1:7-9, apply to us as well as they did to Joshua,

“Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

The next crucial step to kicking the sin habit is to cut sin off at its source. Consider the words of Jesus in Matt 5:29-30,

“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”

Jesus is speaking figuratively rather than literally. The fact is, sin is pre-eminently a matter of the heart not the eyes or hands.

Jesus is saying in essence, whatever the source of sin in your life is, cut it off whatever it may be. If it’s a friend or even a close relative, cut him or her out of your life. It’s better to go to heaven with no friends (where you will have myriads of them) then hell where there will be none. If you have a problem drinking, stay away from liquor stores and bars. If you have a sin problem, cut yourself off from its source.

Prov 13:20, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed. ”

Rom 13:14, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. “

Live in light of eternity

Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

In the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament, humility is an essential characteristic of true piety. God humbles men in order to bring them to Himself.

 I Kings 21:29,  “Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days, {but} I will bring the evil upon his house in his son’s days.”

2 Chr. 7:14, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

In Ps. 18:35 (28, 22, 36) humility is ascribed to God Himself!

“Thy gentleness [or condescension] hath made me great.” Of “him that hath his seat on high” it is said, “[He] humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth” (Ps 113:6).

It is in the humble heart that “the high and lofty One . . . . . whose name is Holy” dwells (Isa 57:15; ef 66:2).

The prominence it (humility) gained in Christian thought indicates the new conception of man in relation to God, to himself, and to his fellow-man, which is unique to Christianity. It by no means implies slavishness or servility; nor is it inconsistent with a right estimate of oneself, one’s gifts and calling of God, or with proper self-assertion when called for.

But the habitual frame of mind of a child of God is that of one who feels not only that he owes all his natural gifts, etc, to God, but that he has been the object of undeserved redeeming love, and who regards himself as being not his own, but God’s in Christ. “He cannot exalt himself, for he knows that he has nothing of himself. The humble mind is thus at the root of all other graces and virtue. Self-exaltation spoils everything.”

There can he no real love without humility. “Love,” said Paul ‘vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up” (I Cor 13 4).

The first of the Beatitudes was to “the poor in spirit” (Mt. 5:3), and it was “the meek” who should “inherit the earth.”

Humility is the way to true greatness: he who should “humble himself as this little child” should be “the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”; “Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Mt 18:23).

Humility is characterized in this passage, as a willingness to subordinate selfish desires in order to accomplish the greatest good. It is not a lack of character, but an evidence of it.

 Matt 11:25, “At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.”

Ps 37:10-11, “Yet a little while and the Wicked man will be no more; and you will look carefully for his place, and he will not be there. 11 But the humble will inherit the land, and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.”

Prov 29:23, “A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.”

Isa 66:2 “For My hand-made all these things, thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.”

Prov 8:13, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.”

Pride (and the devil) is the driving force behind sin. The essence of sin is self-will. Self will is driven by pride. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Pride is why many people are not satisfied with the house they live in (Hebrews 13:5).

It’s why people won’t say, “I’m sorry, I was wrong, please forgive me.”

It’s why you talk to your wife in an unkind manner (1 Peter 3:7).

It’s why you pretend to be closer to God than you really are (Mark 7:6).

It’s why you spend money you don’t have to buy things you don’t need (John 12:42-43).

Pride is why people refuse to forgive others (Matthew 6:14-15).

It’s why wives don’t respect your husband (Eph. 5:33).

It’s why people refuse to admit when they’re wrong.

Pride is an act of self-will (Isa. 14:13-14).

Pride is why we won’t ask for help.

Pride can be the driving force to succeed or to be noticed by men (Phil 1:16).

Pride says life is lived best by looking out for number one (Phil. 2:3).

Pride is why some men can’t say the words, “I love you.”

Pride is why Christian’s don’t share the Gospel with unbelievers.

Pride is why people don’t want to believe.

Pride is like cancer. Often times, you don’t know you have it until you have a problem or it’s too late.

More later (God willing).

Is Roman Catholicism a False Religious System?

I now ask that you consider for yourself the questions that may challenge your faith. Realize this, based upon your answers, these questions are going to show you a few things. They will express your worldview. They will reveal the philosophy that you live by. And they may reveal logical conflicts that should not exist in the right religion. In the Bible, it says that “God is not the author of confusion.”
Without further comment, here are the questions.

1) How did the first man appear before there ever was a God?

This question may not seem important at first. Until you realize that if man becomes a God and there had to be a first God. How did that man appear and how did he become God?

The Bible teaches us that God created Adam and made him a living being.

Genesis 2:7 KJV And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

2) Who was the first God?

If there was a Father to our Father God, that makes him our spiritual grandfather. We should know our grandfather’s name. Right?

The Bible does not teach this though. We are told that the God of the Bible is the only all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-present God.

Isaiah 45:21-22 KJV
21 Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.
22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
3) Where did creation come from? May we call it creation?

We have to come to a conclusion on these thoughts. Is the universe eternal or was it created? If it is eternal, that means that our God and all other Gods are dependent on the universe. In other words, if the universe never had existed, nether would any god.

If God is eternal, the universe is then dependent on him. Here is what the Bible says:

Genesis 1:1 KJV In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

John 1:1-3 KJV
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Colossians 1:16 KJV
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

4) Where does God get his power? Where did the first God get his power?

This is another one of those thought provoking questions. If God is reliant upon the universe, because it is eternal and he is not, then where does his power come from? Something caused him to gain his power. The question is more importantly asked of the first God.

The God of the Bible does not have this problem. He is the uncaused one. This is what the God of the Bible said:

Psalm 90:2 KJV
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

5) Have you prayed about every one of the ten’s of thousands of religions on the planet? Could you have gotten a stronger burning in your bosom by praying for one of those?

The Bible does not ever teach you to ever pray to confirm that it is true. On the contrary, the Bible assumes that it is God’s word. It proves itself to be God’s word by fulfilled prophesies. It proves itself to be God’s word by the morality taught by it. Paul said these words,

2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

6) Are you able to find one or, better yet, two non-LDS archeologists who are able to corroborate the Book of Mormon as historically and geographically accurate?

The Bible does have a history of being accurate enough to use as a map by archeologists looking for ancient antiquities. You may go to the holy land and see for yourself what is shown in scripture. There are historical documents, physical structures, and geographical locations. You are not able to do this with the LDS scriptures. There are no historical documents, there are no physical structures, and the geographical locations are not where the LDS church teaches.

7) Has there ever been found examples of Reformed Egyptian and has it been confirmed by a non-LDS expert?

The Egyptian language is found throughout the Middle East. The Reformed Egyptian language seems not to be easily found. Expert Egyptologists will tell you this language and writing does not even exist.

In 1966, John A. Wilson, professor of Egyptology at the University of Chicago, wrote, “From time to time there are allegations that picture writing has been found in America… In no case has a professional Egyptologist been able to recognize these characters as Egyptian hieroglyphs. From our standpoint there is no such language as ‘reformed Egyptian’.”

There are numerous expert sources supporting the lack of evidence for Reformed Egyptian. This one came from wikipedia.

8) Which Indian tribes in North, Central, and South America have Hebrew DNA? If there is a tribe, how are you able to link them to the BOM?

There is one tribe who possibly has ties to the Hebrew people. That is the Cherokee tribe. But even that is suspect.That possible link is connected through the Scythians who were world travelers. It is believed that these Scythians transported Hebrews to North America thousands of years ago. There is no connection at all of Hebrew DNA to the natives of South America, Central America, and most or all of North America. Researchers have found that 99.4% of the DNA tested from these Indians was from Eastern China and the remaining is from European and Africans who came to America in the 1500’s and later.

9) Do you believe that there are false prophets? Could you describe a false prophet? Do you know of any? What are we supposed to do about our relationship with false prophets?

A false prophet is easy to identify. If someone makes a prediction as if the message came from God and they were wrong, they are a false prophet. There are many false prophets.

Here are two false prophesies:

1. Prophecy about Jesus’ return within 56 years–“President Smith then stated that the meeting had been called, because God had commanded it; and it was made known to him by vision and by the Holy Spirit. He then gave a relation of some of the circumstances attending us while journeying to Zion–our trials, sufferings; and said God had not designed all this for nothing, but He had it in remembrance yet; and it was the will of God that those who went to Zion, with a determination to lay down their lives, if necessary, should be ordained to the ministry, and go forth to prune the vineyard for the last time, for the coming of the Lord, which was nigh–even fifty-six years should wind up the scene.” (History of the Church, vol. 2, p. 189). Matt Slick

2. Prophecy that the temple would be built in Missouri within Smith’s Generation–“Yea, the word of the Lord concerning his church, established in the last days for the restoration of his people, as he has spoken by the mouth of his prophets, and for the gathering of his saints to stand upon Mount Zion,i which shall be the city of New Jerusalem. 3 Which city shall be built, beginning at the temple lot, which is appointed by the finger of the Lord, in the western boundaries of the State of Missouri, and dedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith, Jun., and others with whom the Lord was well pleased. 4 Verily this is the word of the Lord, that the city New Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints, beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which temple shall be reared in this generation. 5 For verily this generation shall not all pass away until an house shall be built unto the Lord, and a cloud shall rest upon it, which cloud shall be even the glory of the Lord, which shall fill the house . . . 31 Therefore, as I said concerning the sons of Moses for the sons of Moses and also the sons of Aaron shall offer an acceptable offering and sacrifice in the house of the Lord, which house shall be built unto the Lord in this generation, upon the consecrated spot as I have appointed.” (Doctrines and Covenants 84:2-5,31.) Matt Slick

10) What exactly do your works accomplish in relation to your salvation?

The Bible clearly teaches that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. True salvation produces good works. Good works proves a person is saved. It is not part of salvation. This is important. From the perspective of the Christian, we cannot earn our salvation. If we have to work for salvation in addition to faith, that means either Christ’s blood was not enough to pay for our sins, or we are able to dilute or frustrate Christ’s work. The Christian’s work is meant to glorify God.

Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

11) What makes the LDS Church different than any other of the works-righteousness religions? What makes LDS works better than others’ works?

What many Saints do not know is that their works based theology is not much different than that of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Islam, and the Roman Catholic Church. Each adds works to faith.

12) Why should we believe that the Bible is in any way in error or unreliable (“not translated correctly”)?

There are tens of thousands of manuscripts of scripture dating back to the second century. Additionally, the Church Fathers quoted scripture liberally. Between these two very large sources of scripture, the Bible is found to be very reliable. Dr. Dan Wallace from Dallas Theological Seminary is a great resource on Textual Criticism. A person may learn Koine Greek easily with the numerous seminaries and on-line classes. The thought that the Bible was translated from its native languages to Latin then English, or into other languages before English is not representative of the facts.

With the amount of data out there, textual critics are able to put together within about 0.5 % the actual autographs of the New Testament. Those scriptures that are questionable are documented as so within the Bibles, such as the woman caught in adultery and a significant portion of Mark 16.

There are tens of thousands of manuscripts as well as a liberal amount of quoting of scripture by the Church Fathers.

Regarding the Old Testament, we have the reliability of the Jewish copyists. And fortunately, copies were kept in various places. We also have the Septuagint, which was translated a 100 or 200 years before Christ.

Now that you have read this far, you may be completely offended. You may be very curious. You may be very concerned about your eternal destiny and that of friends and family. I ask that you read the Gospel of Christ which comes straight from scripture.

1 Corinthians 15 KJV
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

The Gospel is quite simple. God (Jesus) came to earth and lived as a man. He lived a completely innocent righteous life according to the Law. Jesus was our sacrificial lamb. Our sins were placed upon him (imputed). In turn, when we place our faith in Him, his righteousness is placed (imputed) upon us. This process was put in to place by God to help restore man’s relationship with himself. Christ died on the cross to protect us from God’s wrath against our sinful lives. His justice was satisfied by Christ’s death on the cross. In essence, God sent Christ to protect us from what his nature requires, satisfactory punishment for our wrong choices. If we do not place our faith and trust in Christ, we will not be forgiven
and our eternal destiny will be spent receiving the just punishment that we deserve.

If you believe what I have said is true, please pray this prayer in faith to God:

Dear Lord, I am a sinner in need of a Savior. I have fallen short in every one of your commandments. I have kept none of them perfectly. I ask that you forgive me of my sins. I ask that you cleanse me of all unrighteousness. I ask that you make me the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I take myself off of the throne of my heart and ask that Jesus take his rightful spot. Jesus, I acknowledge that you are both Lord and Savior of my life. I deserved Hell. Thank you for saving me. Amen.

This prayer does not work unless it is done with true faith. Otherwise, they are just words.

If you prayed that prayer, feel free to contact us. We will gladly point you in a direction that will be beneficial to you.

Please consider visiting our web site and read more about the Gospel. See the link just below.

https://www.gal416.org/gospel-2/